Finite Sample Description Spaces

To gain some insight into the amount of freedom we have in defining probability functions, it is useful to consider finite sample description spaces. The sample description space of a random observation or experiment is defined as finite if it is of finite size, which is to say that the random observation or experiment under consideration possesses only a finite number of possible outcomes.

Consider now a finite sample description space , of size . We may then list the descriptions in . If we denote the descriptions in by , , then we may write . For example, let be the sample description space of the random experiment of tossing two coins; if we define , then .

It is shown in section 1 of Chapter 2 that possible events may be defined on a sample description space of finite size . For example, if , then there are sixteen possible events that may be defined; namely, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Consequently, to define a probability function on the subsets of , one needs to specify the values that assumes as varies over the events on . However, the values of the probability function cannot be specified arbitrarily but must be such that axioms 1 to 3 are satisfied.

There are certain events of particularly simple structure, called the single-member events, on which it will suffice to specify the probability function in order that it be specified for all events. A single-member event is an event that contains exactly one description . If an event has as its only member the description , this fact may be expressed in symbols by writing . Thus is the event that occurs if and only if the random situation being observed has description . The reader should note the distinction between and ; the former is a description, the latter is an event (which because of its simple structure is called a single member event).

A probability function defined on can be specified by giving its value on the single-member events which correspond to the members of . Its value on any event may then be computed by the following formula:

Formula For Calculating the Probability of Events When the Sample Description Space Is Finite. Let be any event on a finite sample description space . Then the probability of the event is the sum, over all descriptions that are members of , of the probabilities ; we express this symbolically by writing that if then

To prove (6.1), one need note only that if consists of the descriptions then can be written as the union of the mutually exclusive single-member events . Equation (6.1) follows immediately from (5.8) .