Skip to Main Content
The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 4B: Combinatorial Algorithms
book

The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 4B: Combinatorial Algorithms

by Donald E. Knuth
September 2022
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
736 pages
30h 14m
English
Addison-Wesley Professional
Content preview from The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 4B: Combinatorial Algorithms

Mathematical Preliminaries Redux

Many parts of this book deal with discrete probabilities, namely with a finite or countably infinite set Ω of atomic events ω, each of which has a given probability Pr(ω), where

0Pr(ω)1andωΩPr(ω)=1.(1)

This set Ω, together with the function Pr, is called a “probability space.” For example, Ω might be the set of all ways to shuffle a pack of 52 playing cards, with Pr(ω)= 1/52! for every such arrangement.

An event is, intuitively, a proposition that can be either true or false with certain probability. It might, for instance, be the statement “the top card is an ace,” with probability 1/13. Formally, an event A is a subset of Ω, namely the set of all atomic events for which the corresponding proposition A ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Start your free trial

You might also like

The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 4A: Combinatorial Algorithms, Part 1

The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 4A: Combinatorial Algorithms, Part 1

Donald E. Knuth

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780137926862