Two-Way Tables

Key Questions

  • If you are given a pmf = p_(XY)(x,y)

    and you would like to find the marginal p_Y(y)

    we would use the formula p_y(y) = sum_ip(x_i,y)

    in other words you would sum over all of x at the point y

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    So if we look at this table and want to find the marginal p_Y(3)

    we go:

    p_Y(3) = P( Y = 3)
    = P(Y = 3, X = 3) + P(Y = 3, X=4)
    = 0.1 + 0.2
    =0.3

    Now to look at the formula for the conditional probability

    we can look at the formula for x given y which is a conditional probability.

    p_(X|Y)(x|y) = P(X = x_i | Y = y_j) = (P(X = x_i, Y= y_j))/(P(Y = y_j))

    =(p_(XY)(x_i,y_j))/(p_Y(y_i))

    now to use an example, we will look back at our table.

    let us look for the conditional probability of:

    p_(X|Y)(3|4) = 0.1/0.4 = 0.25

    Thus, the probability that X = 3 given that Y=4 is 0.25

  • A two-way table is a display of data divided into two different categories of subsets.

    In the example below, the categories are
    age range: with subsets for ages 0-5, 6-10, and 11-15
    color preference: with subsets for various color choices

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    The entry at D5 (value 8) indicates that 8 children in the age range 6-10 chose yellow as their preferred color.

    The sum of values across a line indicates the number of children who chose the color for that line across all age ranges.

    The sum of values down a column indicates the number of children surveyed in the corresponding age range.

Questions