edX
edXProbability and Statistics I: A Gentle Introduction to Probability
858 studentsINTERMEDIATEEnglish
Korshub's take
Probability underlies every field that deals with uncertainty: science, engineering, finance, medicine. This intermediate course builds genuine intuition around probability rather than rote formula memorization. You'll begin with mathematical foundations (set theory bootcamp) and probability axioms—the rules that make probability tick. Then you'll explore practical tools: counting rules (permutations and combinations), independence, conditional probability, and Bayes Rule. Real applications anchor concepts: poker probability calculations, baseball lineup problems. The journey from axioms to applications shows probability as a consistent framework for reasoning under uncertainty. Rather than abstract theory, emphasis falls on how new information updates probability, making this course valuable for anyone working with data, making decisions with imperfect information, or simply wanting to think more rigorously about chance.
About this course
This course provides an introduction to basic probability concepts. Our emphasis is on applications in science and engineering, with the goal of enhancing modeling and analysis skills for a variety of real-world problems.
In order to make the course completely self-contained (and to bring back long-lost memories), we’ll start off with Bootcamp lessons to review concepts from set theory and calculus. We’ll then discuss the probability axioms that serve as the basis for all of our subsequent work – what makes probability tick? That discussion will give us the tools to study elementary probability counting rules, including permutations and combinations. We’ll use these rules to work on various cool applications, including poker probability calculations and baseball line-ups!
The next venues on our tour are the concepts of independence and conditional probability, which allow us to see how the probabilities of different events are related to each other, and how new information can be used to update probabilities. The course culminates in a discussion of Bayes Rule and its various interesting consequences related to probability updates.
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