• Course Title: Probability for Electrical Engineering

• Instructor: Dr. Fawad Zaman

• Designation: Tenured Associate Professor,

• Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering,

• COMSATS University Islamabad.

• Office: Room No: 323, 3rd Floor, AB-I,

• Email: fawad.zaman@comsats.edu.pk.
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Deterministic models: The conditions under which an experiment is
carried out determine the exact outcome of the experiment.
• In deterministic mathematical models, the solution of a set of mathematical equations specifies
the exact outcome of the experiment.
• Circuit theory is an example of a deterministic mathematical model.
Random Experiment: An experiment in which the outcome varies in an unpredictable fashion when the
experiment is repeated under the same conditions, e. g, Tossing a coin, rolling a die, selecting a ball from an urn

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• Statistical Regularity: Many probability models in engineering are based on the fact
that averages obtained in long sequences of repetitions (trials) of random experiments
consistently yield approximately the same value. This property is called statistical regularity.

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Relative Frequency

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• Sometimes we are interested in the occurrence of events associated with the outcomes
of an experiment.
For example, consider the event “an even-numbered ball is selected”
in the above urn experiment.
What is the relative frequency of this event?
The event will occur whenever the number of the ball is 0 or 2.
The number of experiments in which the outcome is an even-numbered ball is therefore

The relative frequency of the event is thus

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• More generally, let C be the event “A or B occurs,”
• where A and B are two events that cannot occur simultaneously,
• then the number of times when C occurs is

• Equations (1.3), (1.4), and (1.5) are the three basic properties of relative frequency
• from which we can derive many other useful results.

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The Axiomatic Approach to a Theory of Probability

• Equation (1.2) suggests that we define the probability of an event by its long-term relative
frequency.

• There are problems with using this definition of probability to develop a mathematical theory of
probability.

• First of all, it is not clear when and in what mathematical sense the limit in Eq. (1.2) exists.

• Second, we can never perform an experiment an infinite number of times, so we can never know
the probabilities exactly.

• Thus, it makes practical sense to develop a mathematical theory of probability that is

not tied to any particular application or to any particular notion of what probability means.
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Axioms
• The modern theory of probability begins with a construction of a set of axioms that specify
that probability assignments must satisfy these properties.
• It supposes that: (1) a random experiment has been defined, and a set S of all possible outcomes has been
identified;
• (2) a class of subsets of S called events has been specified; and
• (3) each event A has been assigned a number, P[A], in such a way that the following axioms are satisfied:

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• Lecture No. 02
• Dated: 20/02/2024

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