Gender classification – Bayes for continuous random variables

So far, we have been given a probability event that belonged to one of a finite number of classes, for example, a temperature was classified as cold, warm, or hot. But how would we calculate the posterior probability if we were given the temperature in °C instead?

For this example, we are given the heights of five men and five women, as shown in the following table:

Height in cm	Gender
180	Male
174	Male
184	Male
168	Male
178	Male
170	Female
164	Female
155	Female
162	Female
166	Female
172	?

 

Suppose that the next person has a height of 172 cm. What gender is that person more likely to be, and with what probability?

Analysis

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