04-09-2004, 10:16 AM
Woo, I just learned the basics of this in my discreet mathematics course. :P
Basically, Baye's Theorem relates P(A|B) to P(B|A), that is the probability of A given that B has happened to the probability that B happens when it is known that A happened.
So, say you build a database of commonly used words in spam emails, and how often they occur, which naturally gives you a set of probabilities of words to occur in those emails. Apply Baye's theorem, and you can derive the probability that an email is spam, given that it contained those words.
I could be wrong, of course, in regards to the actual application, since I'm just making this up as I type, but the parts about how Baye's theorem works is true, afaik. ;)
Basically, Baye's Theorem relates P(A|B) to P(B|A), that is the probability of A given that B has happened to the probability that B happens when it is known that A happened.
So, say you build a database of commonly used words in spam emails, and how often they occur, which naturally gives you a set of probabilities of words to occur in those emails. Apply Baye's theorem, and you can derive the probability that an email is spam, given that it contained those words.
I could be wrong, of course, in regards to the actual application, since I'm just making this up as I type, but the parts about how Baye's theorem works is true, afaik. ;)