So far this semester this was one of the hardest things for me to understand was the difference between probability and odds. After looking at my test that was over this I clearly can see I was not entirely grasping this concept. So to help you all out I am going to try to explain it so you can have a better understanding than I did. To just make sure we are on the same page, I didn't understand it because I was taught wrong, it is because it was a difficult concept for me. So I want to share what I know to help you out. Here are a couple of sites that might be of some use to use while learning the differences between probability and odds.
- Changing Probability to Odds
- Differences Between Odds and Probability
- Finding the Odds
- Probability of Events
Lets start by simple definition of each
Probability: Is the amount of successes divided by the total.
Odds in Favor: Is the amount of successes divided by the amount of failures.
Odds Against: Is the amount of failures divided by the amount of successes.
An example of probability would be if I was to say I have a 60% chance of getting a banana out of a basket that had only 6 bananas and 4 apples. I would have a 6/10 = 3/5 chance
Odds in Favor: Would be 3:2 to get that I need to make sure that when the two numbers add up that they equal the total. So I subtract the successes from the total to give me the failures.
5-3=2 Since 3 is the successes and 2 is the failures and Odds in Favor is the amount of successes over amount of failures we get this...
3:2
Odds Against: Would be 2:3, and since we know that Odds Against is amount of failures over amount of successes it write it like this...
2:3
I thought i was the only one that didn't understand this concept! Thanks Casey for making me feel better about this!
ReplyDeleteMary