Classical Probability: History & Key Concepts Explained

The classical definition of probability is stated as:

Where:

• is the probability of event occurring.
• The number of favorable outcomes refers to the outcomes in which the event occurs.
• The total number of possible outcomes refers to all equally likely outcomes that can occur in the experiment.

For example, when rolling a fair six-sided die, the probability of rolling a 3 is:

Here, the total number of possible outcomes is 6 (one for each face of the die), and there is only 1 favorable outcome (rolling a 3).

Another example: The Socks Drawer Dilemma:

You have a drawer filled with 10 socks, all of which are black, except for one lone red sock. What’s the probability of pulling out the red sock?