Simple Event

A Simple Event is a Random Experiment Event composed of a single Outcome.

• AKA: Atomic Event, Elementary Event.
• Example(s):
  • E'={(Ace,Diamond)}
• Counter-Example(s):
  • E'={(Ace,Diamond),(Ace,Heart)}
• See: Compound Event.

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References

2017a

• (Wikipedia, 2017) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_event Retrieved:2017-7-1.
  • In probability theory, an elementary event (also called an atomic event or simple event) is an event which contains only a single outcome in the sample space. Using set theory terminology, an elementary event is a singleton. Elementary events and their corresponding outcomes are often written interchangeably for simplicity, as such an event corresponds to precisely one outcome.

    The following are examples of elementary events:

    • All sets {k}, where k ∈ N if objects are being counted and the sample space is S = {0, 1, 2, 3, ...} (the natural numbers).
    • {HH}, {HT}, {TH} and {TT} if a coin is tossed twice. S = {HH, HT, TH, TT}. H stands for heads and T for tails.
    • All sets {x}, where x is a real number. Here X is a random variable with a normal distribution and S = (−∞, +∞). This example shows that, because the probability of each elementary event is zero, the probabilities assigned to elementary events do not determine a continuous probability distribution.

2017b

• (teacherlink, 2017) ⇒ http://www.teacherlink.org/content/math/interactive/probability/glossary/glossary.html
  • QUOTE: Elementary Event: "An event that contains a single outcome" (Dolciani, Sorgenfrey, Graham, & Myers, 1988). Also called a Simple Event.

2006

• Suzanne R. Dubnicka. (2006). “STAT 510: Handout 1 - Probability Terminology. Kansas State University
  • TERMINOLOGY : A simple event is one that can not be decomposed. That is, a simple event corresponds to exactly one outcome. Compound events are those events that contain more than one sample point. In the roulette example, the event A1 is a simple event while events A2 and A3 are compound events.

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