Question

Are independent events the same as mutually exclusive events? Defend your answer.

Answer 1

can you describe what either mean?

Answer 2

Thanks :)

Answer 3

What happened?

Answer 4

because he didn't cite the reference of that yahoo answers response I had to delete it. If you copy something from the internet you have to cite the reference or it can be seen as plagiarism.

Answer 5

he/she*

Answer 6

Well you could have at least told him or her. well it doesn't matter i already got the answer

Answer 7

Thanks any ways @ganeshie8

Answer 8

"Independence" and "mutually exclusive" are two different concepts
but seeing the difference between them is a bit tricky

Answer 9

maybe first start by defining each thing

Answer 10

Mutually Exclusive it is impossible for them to happen together.
Independent Events are not affected by eachother

Answer 11

Exactly !

Answer 12

Two events that are "mutually exclusive" cannot happen at the same time

Two events are independent if knowing the outcome of one provides no useful info about the outcome of other

Answer 13

lets defend our statement that "they both are different" with an example

Answer 14

for example :
"Tossing a coin one time" : the two events (H/T) are mutually exclusive because they cannot happen at the same time

Answer 15

consider another example :
"Tossing a coin two times" : the two events are independent because, the outcome of first toss will not affect the outcome of second toss

Answer 16

Okay that makes a lot of sense thank you :)

Answer 17

So, "mutually exclusive" is about events happening at the same time.
where as "independence" is about events not affecting each other !

they both are two different things

Answer 18

good to hear :) u wlc !

Answer 19

just one more thing : two "mutually exclusive" events are always "dependent" (think of it why)

Answer 20

beat me to it :D