notebook vol. 04 no. 7c46
hwakryul.com

확률

a workshop for probability — chance pinned to paper, ink staining the margins, possibility weighed by hand.

est. 2026 × filed by hand × p(read) → 1
01 coin toss
H
T

The simplest probability problem is also the deepest. Flip a fair coin: P(H) = ½, P(T) = ½. Add them, you arrive at 1. Everything has happened.

But "fair" is a promise — the metal does not know it. Each flip is an experiment renegotiated with gravity, geometry, and the surface it lands on.

log // awaiting first toss
02 distribution

Roll two dice, sum the faces. The probabilities are not flat — they pile up in the middle, the way stones gather in a riverbed. This is what mathematicians mean by a distribution.

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 P(sum = x) x = die₁ + die₂
fig. 02   sum of two fair dice. peak at x = 7 with p = 6⁄36 ≈ 0.167.
odd outcomes even outcomes
03 etymology · 확률
hwak
certain · confirmed · firmly established
radical: 石 (stone) + 隺
+
ryul
rate · ratio · proportion
radical: 玄 (mystery, dark thread)
確 + 率 確率 / 확률 / the certain ratio

A beautiful contradiction lives in the word: certainty about uncertainty. We do not know which face the coin will show, but we know — with mathematical exactness — the rate at which heads will arrive across enough trials. Probability is the discipline of being precise about not knowing.

04 marginalia · bayes
P(H | E) = P(E | H) · P(H) P(E)

// posterior = (likelihood × prior) ÷ evidence
// a rule for updating belief in the presence of new ink.

  • [ x ] begin with a prior — your honest first guess.
  • [ x ] observe — write down what actually happened.
  • [ x ] update — the new posterior becomes tomorrow's prior.
  • [   ] repeat, forever, calmly.