Odds vs. Probability

[thauerbyi]

We calculate the probability of something happening by dividing the number of favorable outcomes by the total number of possibilities let's assume you roll a dice once the likelihood of obtaining 3 is 1/6 so about 16.7% or 0.167 but what about odds first and foremost they're not the same thing they're currently expressed as X to Y where X is the number of favorable outcomes and Y is the number of unfavorable outcomes in our case the odds of obtaining 3 are 1 to 5 because there's one favorable outcome 3 and 5 unfavorable outcomes 1 2 4 5 & 6 as you can see one we care about favorable and unfavorable outcomes when it comes to odds two we care about favorable and total outcomes when it comes to probabilities with the total number of outcomes being of course the sum between the number of favorable and unfavorable outcomes instead of using the word two you can use the symbols / - or colon when writing about odds finally please be careful and use 2 when referring to odds whereas when it comes to probabilities you use in or out of in other words you can say one to five odds of obtaining 3 on the one hand or a 1 in 6 or 1 out of 6 probability of obtaining 3 on the other