The Probability of Non-Intersection of Two Equi-Size Random Sets | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article The Probability of Non-Intersection of Two Equi-Size Random Sets Paul F. Easthope This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8822184/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Consider two sets of equal length k , each element of which is sampled from a uniformly-distributed set of integers in the range [1, M] with 2 k ≤ M . This paper derives an exact expression for the probability that there will be no ele- ments in common between the two sets, and compares this to what is obtained from the familiar binomial distribution. It is shown that the binomial solution is accurate to the order of 1/M 2 , which is expected to be adequate for practical purposes. Applied Mathematics Probability random sets ancestor probabilities Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. 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