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On conditional probability: Cards, Covid, and Crazy Rich Asians Madeleine Hall
I
was watching the film Crazy Rich Asians the other day, as thereβs not a lot to do at the moment besides watching Netflix and watching more Netflix. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and would highly recommend it. However, there was something that happened in the first few minutes which really got me thinking and inspired the subject of this Chalkdust article. The main character in the film is an economics professor (the American kind where you can achieve the title of professor while still being in your 20s and without having to claw your way over a pile of your peers to the top of your research field). Within the opening scenes of the film we see her delivering a lecture, in which she is playing poker with a student, while also making remarks about how to win using βmathematical logicβ. The bell rings seemingly halfway through the lecture the way it always does in American films and TV shows, and our professor calls out to her students ββ¦and donβt forget your essays on conditional probability are due next week!β Now, I am not going to delve into the question of what type of economics course she is teaching that involves playing poker and mathematical logic, but it got me thinkingβwhat exactly would an βessay on conditional probabilityβ entail?
What is conditional probability? Conditional probability is defined as a measure of the probability of an event occurring, given that another event (by assumption, presumption, assertion, or evidence) has already occurred. For all chalkdustmagazine.com
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