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Bayes' Formula

Let $A$ and $B_j$ be Sets. Conditional Probability requires that

\begin{displaymath}
P(A\cap B_j) = P(A)P(B_j\vert A),
\end{displaymath} (1)

where $\cap$ denotes Intersection (``and''), and also that
\begin{displaymath}
P(A\cap B_j) = P(B_j\cap A) = P(B_j)P(A\vert B_j)
\end{displaymath} (2)

and
\begin{displaymath}
P(B_j\cap A) = P(B_j)P(A\vert B_j).
\end{displaymath} (3)

Since (2) and (3) must be equal,
\begin{displaymath}
P(A\cap B_j) = P(B_j\cap A).
\end{displaymath} (4)

From (2) and (3),
\begin{displaymath}
P(A\cap B_j) = P(B_j)P(A\vert B_j).
\end{displaymath} (5)

Equating (5) with (2) gives
\begin{displaymath}
P(A)P(B_j\vert A)=P(B_j)P(A\vert B_j),
\end{displaymath} (6)

so
\begin{displaymath}
P(B_j\vert A) = {P(B_j)P(A\vert B_j) \over P(A)}.
\end{displaymath} (7)

Now, let
\begin{displaymath}
S \equiv \bigcup_{i=1}^N A_i,
\end{displaymath} (8)

so $A_i$ is an event in $S$ and $A_i\cap A_j=\emptyset$ for $i\not= j$, then
\begin{displaymath}
A = A\cap S = A\cap \left({\,\bigcup_{i=1}^N A_i}\right)= \bigcup_{i=1}^N (A\cap A_i)
\end{displaymath} (9)


\begin{displaymath}
P(A) = P\left({\,\bigcup_{i=1}^N (A\cap A_i)}\right)= \sum_{i=1}^N P(A\cap A_i).
\end{displaymath} (10)

From (5), this becomes
\begin{displaymath}
P(A) = \sum_{i=1}^N P(A_i)P(A\vert A{_i}),
\end{displaymath} (11)

so
\begin{displaymath}
P(A_i\vert A) = {P(A_i)P(A\vert A_i) \over \sum\limits_{j=1}^N P(A_j)P(A\vert A_j)}.
\end{displaymath} (12)

See also Conditional Probability, Independent Statistics


References

Press, W. H.; Flannery, B. P.; Teukolsky, S. A.; and Vetterling, W. T. Numerical Recipes in FORTRAN: The Art of Scientific Computing, 2nd ed. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, p. 810, 1992.



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© 1996-9 Eric W. Weisstein
1999-05-26