Probability

Concept:Mutually exclusive events have no overlap, which typically violates independence unless one event has zero probability.Explanation:For mutually exclusive events $A$ and $B$, we have $P(A \cap B) = 0$.For independence, we need $P(A \cap B) = P(A)P(B)$.Thus independence would require $P(A)P(B) = 0$, meaning at least one event has probability zero.In general, unless the trivial case, mutually exclusive events cannot be independent.Answer:They cannot be independent.