Mutually Exclusive Categories

Hello all, in this post we will address the following question "What do we mean by mutually exclusive categories?"

Events are mutually exclusive if it is impossible for them to happen at the same time. If there are two outcomes that can occur for a given event it can be one or the other, but not both. These outcomes do not and cannot overlap in any way. Another way of thinking about it in terms of logic is if two categories are mutually exclusive they cannot both be true at the same time – they are disjoint.

Examples include the following:

Making at turn while driving. If you reach the end of a block you can go straight, turn right or left. You cannot do a combination of both. Each event will occur and must occur without the other 2 happening.

The colors on a stoplight can only be red, yellow, and green. It can only show one color at a time.

A common example is a coin toss, it can be heads, or it can be tails, but it cannot be both at once.

If today is Saturday, today cannot be Monday. These are mutually exclusive events in that Today is Saturday, but it cannot also be Monday.

Rolling dice, you can roll a 5 or 2 but not both at the same time.

The radio cannot be both on and off at the same time.