CME 106 – Introduction to Probability and Statistics for Engineers https://stanford.

edu/~shervine

VIP Cheatsheet: Probability Remark: for any event B in the sample space, we have P (B) =
n
X
P (B|Ai )P (Ai ).
i=1

Shervine Amidi r Extended form of Bayes’ rule – Let {Ai , i ∈ [[1,n]]} be a partition of the sample space.
We have:
August 8, 2018 P (Ak |B) =
P (B|Ak )P (Ak )
n
X
P (B|Ai )P (Ai )
i=1
Introduction to Probability and Combinatorics
r Sample space – The set of all possible outcomes of an experiment is known as the sample r Independence – Two events A and B are independent if and only if we have:
space of the experiment and is denoted by S. P (A ∩ B) = P (A)P (B)
r Event – Any subset E of the sample space is known as an event. That is, an event is a set
consisting of possible outcomes of the experiment. If the outcome of the experiment is contained
in E, then we say that E has occurred. Random Variables
r Axioms of probability – For each event E, we denote P (E) as the probability of event E r Random variable – A random variable, often noted X, is a function that maps every element
occuring. By noting E1 ,...,En mutually exclusive events, we have the 3 following axioms: in a sample space to a real line.
n
! n
[ X r Cumulative distribution function (CDF) – The cumulative distribution function F ,
(1) 0 6 P (E) 6 1 (2) P (S) = 1 (3) P Ei = P (Ei ) which is monotonically non-decreasing and is such that lim F (x) = 0 and lim F (x) = 1, is
x→−∞ x→+∞
i=1 i=1 defined as:
F (x) = P (X 6 x)
r Permutation – A permutation is an arrangement of r objects from a pool of n objects, in a
given order. The number of such arrangements is given by P (n, r), defined as: Remark: we have P (a < X 6 B) = F (b) − F (a).
n!
P (n, r) = r Probability density function (PDF) – The probability density function f is the probability
(n − r)! that X takes on values between two adjacent realizations of the random variable.
r Relationships involving the PDF and CDF – Here are the important properties to know
r Combination – A combination is an arrangement of r objects from a pool of n objects, where in the discrete (D) and the continuous (C) cases.
the order does not matter. The number of such arrangements is given by C(n, r), defined as:
P (n, r) n!
C(n, r) = = Case CDF F PDF f Properties of PDF
r! r!(n − r)! X X
(D) F (x) = P (X = xi ) f (xj ) = P (X = xj ) 0 6 f (xj ) 6 1 and f (xj ) = 1
Remark: we note that for 0 6 r 6 n, we have P (n,r) > C(n,r).
xi 6x j
ˆ x ˆ +∞
dF
Conditional Probability (C) F (x) = f (y)dy f (x) = f (x) > 0 and f (x)dx = 1
−∞ dx −∞
r Bayes’ rule – For events A and B such that P (B) > 0, we have:
P (B|A)P (A)
P (A|B) = r Variance – The variance of a random variable, often noted Var(X) or σ 2 , is a measure of the
P (B) spread of its distribution function. It is determined as follows:
Remark: we have P (A ∩ B) = P (A)P (B|A) = P (A|B)P (B). Var(X) = E[(X − E[X])2 ] = E[X 2 ] − E[X]2

r Partition – Let {Ai , i ∈ [[1,n]]} be such that for all i, Ai 6= ∅. We say that {Ai } is a partition
if we have: r Standard deviation – The standard deviation of a random variable, often noted σ, is a
n
measure of the spread of its distribution function which is compatible with the units of the
[ actual random variable. It is determined as follows:
∀i 6= j, Ai ∩ Aj = ∅ and Ai = S p
i=1 σ= Var(X)

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CME 106 – Introduction to Probability and Statistics for Engineers https://stanford.edu/~shervine

r Expectation and Moments of the Distribution – Here are the expressions of the expected r Marginal density and cumulative distribution – From the joint density probability
value E[X], generalized expected value E[g(X)], kth moment E[X k ] and characteristic function function fXY , we have:
ψ(ω) for the discrete and continuous cases:
Case Marginal density Cumulative function

E[X k ]
X XX
Case E[X] E[g(X)] ψ(ω) (D) fX (xi ) = fXY (xi ,yj ) FXY (x,y) = fXY (xi ,yj )
n n n n j xi 6x yj 6y
X X X X
(D) xi f (xi ) g(xi )f (xi ) xki f (xi ) f (xi )eiωxi ˆ ˆ ˆ
+∞ x y
i=1 i=1 i=1 i=1 (C) fX (x) = fXY (x,y)dy FXY (x,y) = fXY (x0 ,y 0 )dx0 dy 0
ˆ +∞ ˆ +∞ ˆ +∞ ˆ +∞
−∞ −∞ −∞

(C) xf (x)dx g(x)f (x)dx xk f (x)dx f (x)eiωx dx

−∞ −∞ −∞ −∞
r Distribution of a sum of independent random variables – Let Y = X1 + ... + Xn with
X1 , ..., Xn independent. We have:
Remark: we have eiωx = cos(ωx) + i sin(ωx). n
Y
ψY (ω) = ψXk (ω)
r Revisiting the kth moment – The kth moment can also be computed with the characteristic
function as follows: k=1
 
1 ∂k ψ r Covariance – We define the covariance of two random variables X and Y , that we note σXY
2
E[X k ] =
ik ∂ω k or more commonly Cov(X,Y ), as follows:
ω=0

Cov(X,Y ) , σXY
2
= E[(X − µX )(Y − µY )] = E[XY ] − µX µY
r Transformation of random variables – Let the variables X and Y be linked by some
function. By noting fX and fY the distribution function of X and Y respectively, we have:
r Correlation – By noting σX , σY the standard deviations of X and Y , we define the correlation
 
 dx  between the random variables X and Y , noted ρXY , as follows:
fY (y) = fX (x)  
dy 2
σXY
ρXY =
σX σY
r Leibniz integral rule – Let g be a function of x and potentially c, and a, b boundaries that
may depend on c. We have: Remarks: For any X, Y , we have ρXY ∈ [−1,1]. If X and Y are independent, then ρXY = 0.
ˆ  ˆ b r Main distributions – Here are the main distributions to have in mind:
∂ b ∂b ∂a ∂g
g(x)dx = · g(b) − · g(a) + (x)dx
∂c a ∂c ∂c a ∂c
Type Distribution PDF ψ(ω) E[X] Var(X)
n
r Chebyshev’s inequality – Let X be a random variable with expected value µ and standard X ∼ B(n, p) P (X = x) = px q n−x (peiω + q)n np npq
deviation σ. For k, σ > 0, we have the following inequality: x
Binomial x ∈ [[0,n]]
1 (D)
P (|X − µ| > kσ) 6
k2 µx −µ iω
X ∼ Po(µ) P (X = x) = e eµ(e −1) µ µ
x!
Poisson x∈N
Jointly Distributed Random Variables
1 eiωb − eiωa a+b (b − a)2
X ∼ U (a, b) f (x) =
r Conditional density – The conditional density of X with respect to Y , often noted fX|Y , b−a (b − a)iω 2 12
Uniform x ∈ [a,b]
is defined as follows:

2
fXY (x,y) 1 −1
x−µ
1 2
σ2
fX|Y (x) = (C) X ∼ N (µ, σ) f (x) = √ e2 σ
eiωµ− 2 ω µ σ2
fY (y) 2πσ
Gaussian x∈R
1 1 1
r Independence – Two random variables X and Y are said to be independent if we have: X ∼ Exp(λ) f (x) = λe−λx
1− iω
λ
λ λ2
fXY (x,y) = fX (x)fY (y) Exponential x ∈ R+

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