1. K. Shum Lecture 14 Continuous sample space, Special case of the law of large numbers, and Probability density function

2. K. Shum A non-discrete sample space Sample space: I={x: 0  x <1} Probability function: For an event E, e.g. an interval within the sample space, then P(E) = length of E. –Example P(0.2  x <0.5) = 0.3. 01

3. K. Shum Probability of one point Given a point a in the sample space I, e.g. 1/5, 2/7, 1/ , whatever, if we randomly and uniformly pick a real number in I, the probability that it is equal to a is zero. –This fact can be interpreted in terms of precision. A randomly chosen point  is equal to a predetermined value a if they are equal with precision of infinitely many decimal places. P(  equals a to the 1st decimal place) = P(  (a-0.05,a+0.05)) = 0.1. P(  equals a to the 2nd decimal place) = P(  (a-0.005,a+0.005)) = 0.01. ….. 01 a 

4. K. Shum Probability of two points So for a fixed value of a, we say that with probability zero, we drawn number is equal to a, or P(a) = 0. For the same reason, if we fix two values a 1 and a 2 before we draw any number, the random number we will draw is equal to a 1 or a 2 with probability zero. –P(a 1 or a 2 ) = 0.

5. K. Shum Probability of n points Let a 1,…,a n, be n points in the sample space I. Pick a random point  in I. P (  = a 1 or…or a n ) = 0. –Reason: Third axiom of probability. P (  = a 1 or…or a n )= P (  = a 1 )+…+ P (  = a n ) =0+…+0 = 0.

6. K. Shum Probability of countably infinite number of points A set S is “countably infinite” means –mathematically, there is a bijection between S and the natural numbers. –data-structure-ly, S can be stored in an infinitely long link list. If S is an event that is countably infinite, then P(S)=0. If we randomly draw a point, it belongs to S with probability zero.

7. K. Shum Example of countably infinite set Set of rational number in I whose denominator is a power of 2. Set of rational numbers in I. Subset of a countably infinite set. Union of a countably infinite set and a finite set. Union of two countably infinite sets.

8. K. Shum Non-examples {0  x <1} –Cantor’s diagonal argument. {0  x <1}-{a 1,…, a n }, the complement of a finite set in I. Complement of a countably infinite set in I.

9. K. Shum Probability zero, probability one We see that a non-empty event may have probability zero. Even an event with infinite cardinality may have probability zero. We say that an event happens with probability one if the complement is an event with probability zero. –For example, with probability one, a randomly drawn number in I is irrational.

10. K. Shum Binary expansion In Matlab, to display a number, say 1/  2, in binary, you can type “dec2bin(1/sqrt(2)*2^60,60)”. Every numbers in I gives rise to an infinitely long binary expansion. Thus the sample space I is a probability model for tossing infinitely many coins, by mapping 1 to T and 0 to H. The tosses are independent with P(T)=P(H)=0.5.

11. K. Shum An ambiguity with probability 0 The numbers 0.1 2, 0.01 2, 011 2, etc. have two different binary expansions. There are two expansions for the same number if it is a rational number with denominator a power of 2. The mapping from these numbers to bit sequence is not well-defined. So, we use the convention that we choose the one with terminating zeros. Anyway, this happens with probability zero and we don’t really care about this small difficulty.

12. K. Shum Is the numbers of 1’s and 0’s asymptotically equal? For  between 0 and 1, define We ask whether the partial sum divided by n is equal to 0.5 asymptotically: A number satisfying the above equation is called normal in base 2.

13. K. Shum Graphes of S( ,n)/n In Matlab, –dec2bin(0.123*2^50,50) is the first 50 bits of 0.123 in string format. –dec2bin(0.123*2^50,50)-48 is the first 50 bits of 0.123 in vector format. –cumsum(dec2bin(0.123*2^50,50)-48) is the cumulative sum, namely, S( ,n)/n. –plot(cumsum(dec2bin(0.123*2^50,50)- 48)./(1:50)) gives you the graph of S( ,n)/n.

14. K. Shum There are infinitely many numbers that are not normal 3/7 = 0.011011011011011011011011… 2. 7/15 = 0.011101110111011101110111… 2. 15/31= 0.01111011110111101111… 2. …

15. K. Shum Is there any normal numbers? We cannot show this by Matlab. –Limited precision. –Limited life. Even if there is an ideal computer with infinite precision, we cannot check the limit of an infinite sequence of 0 and 1. We can prove that normal numbers exist.

16. K. Shum Emile Borel’s normal number theorem (1909) Borel’s theorem in fact not only shows that normal numbers exist, it also proves that they exist in abundance. –Theorem of normal number: If we pick a real number uniformly between 0 and 1, then it is a normal number with probability 1: P(normal numbers) = 1. This is a special case of the strong law of large number.

17. K. Shum Relation to random walk In the binary expansion, if we substitute 0 by –1, we get a one-dimensional random walk. In matlab, 2*(dec2bin(0.123*2^50,50)-48)-1 are the first 50 steps of a random walk corresponding to 0.123. plot(cumsum(2*(dec2bin(0.123*2^50,50)-48)-1)) is the graph of the random walk.

18. K. Shum How to predict the histogram? Two parameters –Number of samples –Bin width Height of a bin is directly proportional to –Number of samples –Bin width

19. K. Shum Six examples Uniform between 0 and 1 Uniform between 0 and 2 Sum of two (uniform between 0 and 1) Square root of a uniform between 0 and 1 Square of a uniform between 0 and 1 -log e (uniform between 0 and 1)

20. K. Shum Probability density function Definition: –Non-negative function defined on the real line. –Area under the curve is equal to one. Histogram of samples will be approximated by (No. of samples) * (bin width) * pdf.