This last example illustrates the fundamental principle that, if the event whose probability is sought can be represented as the union of several other events that have no outcomes in common (“at most one head” is the union of “no heads” and “exactly one head”), then the probability of the union is the sum of the probabilities of the individual events making up the union. To describe this situation symbolically, let S denote the sample space. For two events A and B, the intersection of A and B is the set of all experimental outcomes belonging to both A and B and is denoted A ∩ B; the union of A and B is the set of all experimental outcomes belonging to A or B (or both) and is denoted A ∪ B. The impossible event—i.e., the event containing no outcomes—is denoted by Ø. The probability of an event A is written P(A). The principle of addition of probabilities is that, if A₁, A₂,…, A_n are events with A_i ∩ A_j = Ø for all pairs i ≠ j, then

Equation (1) is consistent with the relative frequency interpretation of probabilities; for, if A_i ∩ A_j = Ø for all i ≠ j, the relative frequency with which at least one of the A_i occurs equals the sum of the relative frequencies with which the individual A_i occur.

Equation (1) is fundamental for everything that follows. Indeed, in the modern axiomatic theory of probability, which eschews a definition of probability in terms of “equally likely outcomes” as being hopelessly circular, an extended form of equation (1) plays a basic role (see the section Infinite sample spaces and axiomatic probability).

An elementary, useful consequence of equation (1) is the following. With each event A is associated the complementary event A^c consisting of those experimental outcomes that do not belong to A. Since A ∩ A^c = Ø, A ∪ A^c = S, and P(S) = 1 (where S denotes the sample space), it follows from equation (1) that P(A^c) = 1 − P(A). For example, the probability of “at least one head” in n tosses of a coin is one minus the probability of “no head,” or 1 − 1/2ⁿ.

Multinomial probability

A basic problem first solved by Jakob Bernoulli is to find the probability of obtaining exactly i red balls in the experiment of drawing n times at random with replacement from an urn containing b black and r red balls. To draw at random means that, on a single draw, each of the r + b balls is equally likely to be drawn and, since each ball is replaced before the next draw, there are (r + b) ×⋯× (r + b) = (r + b)ⁿ possible outcomes to the experiment. Of these possible outcomes, the number that is favourable to obtaining i red balls and n − i black balls in any one particular order is

The number of possible orders in which i red balls and n − i black balls can be drawn from the urn is the binomial coefficientwhere k! = k × (k − 1) ×⋯× 2 × 1 for positive integers k, and 0! = 1. Hence, the probability in question, which equals the number of favourable outcomes divided by the number of possible outcomes, is given by the binomial distributionwhere p = r/(r + b) and q = b/(r + b) = 1 − p.

For example, suppose r = 2b and n = 4. According to equation (3), the probability of “exactly two red balls” is

In this case thepossible outcomes are easily enumerated: (rrbb), (rbrb), (brrb), (rbbr), (brbr), (bbrr).

(For a derivation of equation (2), observe that in order to draw exactly i red balls in n draws one must either draw i red balls in the first n − 1 draws and a black ball on the nth draw or draw i − 1 red balls in the first n − 1 draws followed by the ith red ball on the nth draw. Hence,from which equation (2) can be verified by induction on n.)

Two related examples are (i) drawing without replacement from an urn containing r red and b black balls and (ii) drawing with or without replacement from an urn containing balls of s different colours. If n balls are drawn without replacement from an urn containing r red and b black balls, the number of possible outcomes isof which the number favourable to drawing i red and n − i black balls is

Hence, the probability of drawing exactly i red balls in n draws is the ratio

If an urn contains balls of s different colours in the ratios p₁:p₂:…:p_s, where p₁ +⋯+ p_s = 1 and if n balls are drawn with replacement, the probability of obtaining i₁ balls of the first colour, i₂ balls of the second colour, and so on is the multinomial probability

The evaluation of equation (3) with pencil and paper grows increasingly difficult with increasing n. It is even more difficult to evaluate related cumulative probabilities—for example the probability of obtaining “at most j red balls” in the n draws, which can be expressed as the sum of equation (3) for i = 0, 1,…, j. The problem of approximate computation of probabilities that are known in principle is a recurrent theme throughout the history of probability theory and will be discussed in more detail below.