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Dictionary » P » Probability

Probability

probability

Origin: L. Probabilitas: cf. F. Probabilite.

1. The quality or state of being probable; appearance of reality or truth; reasonable ground of presumption; likelihood. Probability is the appearance of the agreement or disagreement of two ideas, by the intervention of proofs whose connection is not constant, but appears for the most part to be so. (locke)

2. That which is or appears probable; anything that has the appearance of reality or truth. The whole life of man is a perpetual comparison of evidence and balancing of probabilities. (Buckminster) We do not call for evidence till antecedent probabilities fail. (J. H. Newman)

3. (Science: mathematics) likelihood of the occurrence of any event in the doctrine of chances, or the ratio of the number of favorable chances to the whole number of chances, favorable and unfavorable. See 1st Chance.

Synonym: Likeliness, credibleness, likelihood, chance. A measure of how likely it is that some event will occur; what is the probability of rain?; we have a good chance of winning.The quality of being probable.The chances of a particular outcome occurring.


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Biology at the university

... reptiles, amphibians and mammals) and right now the two choices that I'm choosing between are either Zoology or Marine Biology, but in all probability I think that it's wiser to opt for the latter one in accordance to finding jobs in the future. (It seems that very few universities offer ...

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by Chrism
Sat Sep 05, 2009 9:46 am
 
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Topic: Biology at the university
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Views: 27

Re: Question About Common Descent

... more or less simultaneously in a spontaneous manner at numerous separate sites around the earth. The implication in this case would be that the probability of the chance collection of atoms required to lead to the basic building block chemicals should be sufficient to expect those chemical reactions ...

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by robsabba
Fri Sep 04, 2009 7:10 pm
 
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Topic: Question About Common Descent
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Views: 24

Question About Common Descent

... more or less simultaneously in a spontaneous manner at numerous separate sites around the earth. The implication in this case would be that the probability of the chance collection of atoms required to lead to the basic building block chemicals should be sufficient to expect those chemical reactions ...

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by bobc2
Fri Sep 04, 2009 5:46 pm
 
Forum: Evolution
Topic: Question About Common Descent
Replies: 3
Views: 24

Re: Kullback–Leibler divergence

... IMHO the best. I have related question. Suppose the die outcomes are continous, i.e. it can be any number between 1 to 6 how do I calculate the probability in this case? Thanks

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by baccts
Thu Aug 06, 2009 6:44 pm
 
Forum: Bioinformatics
Topic: Kullback–Leibler divergence
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Views: 1911

Re: Gene cloning question

... probably best off starting with 5-10. Also, most of these signal peptides are at the N- or C- terminus, not in the middle of the protein, and the probability of you creating a signal sequence out of chance is really really small.

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by MrMistery
Sat Aug 01, 2009 3:08 am
 
Forum: Molecular Biology
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Views: 1442
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