Difference between conditional and intersection in probability.?
I am having hard time figuring out if it is a conditional probability or an "and" probability under the following types of problems.>When a student is absent, the probability of the student being sick is .6In such a sentence, I am not quite sure if the probability is conditional or the probability when the student is sick and absent.Which one would it be?As a matter of fact, is there a rule of thumb to be able to tell if it is conditional or not?I feel as though every time I deal with these kind of problems I get stuck.
You should interpret the sentence as "the probability of the student being sick under the condition that a student is absent is 0.6". This is because the question used the word "when". This implies that you are taking samples of sick students from a pool of samples that are absent. This case conditional probability needs to be applied.
