MAT208 Probability Theory

Kevin Carlin     Spring 99
MAT208.01        MW 2:30

Materials

Sheldon Ross, A First Course in Probability, 5th edition, Prentice-Hall, 1998.

A scientific calculator will be required.

In addition to a notebook you will also need a one-inch ring binder and a supply of loose-leaf paper. The binder will be used to compile a homework journal.

Topics

Counting: permutations, combinations, binomial theorem, multinomial coefficients.

Probabilities: sample spaces and events, probability axioms, calculation of probabilities, continuity.

Conditional probability: conditioning, Bayes' formula, independent events.

Discrete random variables: distribution functions, expectation and variance of a discrete random variable, Bernoulli trials, binomial and Poisson distributions.

Continuous random variables: expectation and variance of a continuous random variable, uniform, normal and exponential distributions.

Additional topics: jointly distributed random variables, independent random variables, sums of random variables, moment generating functions, the law of large numbers.

Grading

There will be five 15-minute quizzes, two 75-minute exams during the semester and a three hour final exam. Your final grade will be based on 500 points:

homework journal@ 40 points 40
5 quizzes @ 20 points 100
2 exams @ 100 points 200
Final exam @ 160 points 160
500

Grades are based on partial credit and will be scaled. Typically A- = 75%, B- = 60%, C- = 50%, D- = 35%.

voice mail: 7563e-mail: kcarlin@assumption.edu
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Last modified January 15, 1999