Not Getting Anywhere

JeffM

Elite Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2012
Messages
7,875
As everyone providing assistance here knows, I am neither a student in a class nor doing homework. This came up in a project I am working on, and I cannot figure out whether there is no answer or whether I am missing something obvious.

P(X)=a known positive value a<1;P(Y)=a known positive value b<1;P(Z)=a known positive value c<1;P(Y  X)=1;P(Y  Z)=1, andP(Z  Y)=a known positive value d<1.P(X)= \text {a known positive value } a < 1;\\ P(Y) = \text {a known positive value } b < 1;\\ P(Z) = \text {a known positive value } c < 1;\\ P(Y \ | \ X) = 1;\\ P(Y \ | \ Z) = 1, \text { and}\\ P(Z \ | \ Y) = \text {a known positive value } d < 1.
The question is whether a, b, c, and d are sufficient to compute P(Z  X)P(Z \ | \ X), and if so how?

I cannot prove a, b, c, and d are sufficient nor that they are not. I am feeling like an idiot and keep going in circles.
 
As everyone providing assistance here knows, I am neither a student in a class nor doing homework. This came up in a project I am working on, and I cannot figure out whether there is no answer or whether I am missing something obvious.

P(X)=a known positive value a<1;P(Y)=a known positive value b<1;P(Z)=a known positive value c<1;P(Y  X)=1;P(Y  Z)=1, andP(Z  Y)=a known positive value d<1.P(X)= \text {a known positive value } a < 1;\\ P(Y) = \text {a known positive value } b < 1;\\ P(Z) = \text {a known positive value } c < 1;\\ P(Y \ | \ X) = 1;\\ P(Y \ | \ Z) = 1, \text { and}\\ P(Z \ | \ Y) = \text {a known positive value } d < 1.
The question is whether a, b, c, and d are sufficient to compute P(Z  X)P(Z \ | \ X), and if so how?

I cannot prove a, b, c, and d are sufficient nor that they are not. I am feeling like an idiot and keep going in circles.
I believe the answer is no.

The circles I went in are Venn diagrams, starting with the subset relationship implied by the 1's (ignoring possible measure-zero effects). I also observed that d is redundant.

But I'm not willing to declare my answer as proved, because I've only thought about it informally with little pictures.
 
I agree with @Dr.Peterson. Treating X,Y,ZX,Y,Z as sets, we can show that XYX\subset Y and ZYZ\subset Y (again, ignoring zero measure subsets). The question can now be reduced to whether the knowledge of P(ZY)P(Z|Y) is enough to compute P(YZ)P(Y|Z), which it is not in the general case.
It should be possible to construct a counterexample with a Venn diagram, but I feel too lazy for that.
 
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