7.7: Summary

Randomness is an important aspect of everyday life that not only is part of the games we play but is a crucial part of the modern application of the scientific method. The likelihood of the occurrence of random events can be described using the mathematical measure called probability or, equivalently, chance. An intuitive understanding of probability is crucial to being able to properly interpret the statistical analyses that are commonly used in the application of empirical studies to the scientific method. In this chapter we introduced the concepts of probability and chance and discussed how they can be interpreted in terms of rolling a die with a specified number of sides. We also introduced the concept of odds, which is a measure of how often a random event occurs compared to how often it does not occur. In medical studies, the odds of two groups are often compared using an odds ratio.

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