I printed the fact sheet for the Dantes principles of Statistics and have been going point by point looking each topic up. I ran accross a topic that I couldn't find anywhere. It's under probability, "compatible and incompatible events" Is anyone familier with that? It probably is no big deal....just wondering if there is a formula that I need for it.There seems to be a never ending list of formulas to memorize for this exam ! Well, thanks everybody!

Hi Princykit,

Compatible and incompatible events are just a different way of saying mutually exclusive or not mutually exclusive.

If something is not mutually exclusive, you have to factor in the possibility that you will get BOTH event A and event B at the same time. If an event is mutually exclusive, there is no possibility that you would ever get A AND B. So you calculate the probability of event A and also the probability of event B (but you don't have to worry about the probability of Event A AND B).

If I haven't explained it well enough, you will definitely be more successful in finding more info using the terms "mutually exclusive events" and "non-mutually exclusive events", rather than the somewhat lesser used "compatible events" and "incompatible events". But rest assured, they refer to the same thing.

Quick Edit: I forgot to mention the formulas...

Mutually exclusive event = Pr(A) + Pr(B)
Non-mutually exclusive event = Pr(A) + Pr(B) - Pr(A AND B)

Hope that helps,
Snazzlefrag

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Thanks, that helps a lot! Have a great weekend.