Law of total expectation

The proposition in probability theory known as the law of total expectation, the law of iterated expectations (LIE), the tower rule, Adam's law, and the smoothing theorem, among other names, states that if is a random variable whose expected value is defined, and is any random variable on the same probability space, then i.e., the expected value of the conditional expected value of given is the same as the expected value of . One special case states that if is a finite or countable partition of the sample space, then

Law of total expectation

The proposition in probability theory known as the law of total expectation, the law of iterated expectations (LIE), the tower rule, Adam's law, and the smoothing theorem, among other names, states that if is a random variable whose expected value is defined, and is any random variable on the same probability space, then i.e., the expected value of the conditional expected value of given is the same as the expected value of . One special case states that if is a finite or countable partition of the sample space, then