Two events are called mutually exclusive or disjoint if they do not have any outcome common between them. If the two events  and  are mutually exclusive, then  (null set). For three mutually exclusive events and , we have . Suppose there is a sample space  as:
           
            Let    and  
            Here. Thus and are mutually exclusive events. Both and belong to the same sample space but they are completely different and both cannot happen at the same time. A class of students may contain first grade, second grade and third grade. When a student is selected from the class, he will be any one of the three groups of students. Thus three groups of students are disjoint or mutually exclusive. When the two events and are mutually exclusive, we can show them with the help of a Vann diagram. The Vann diagram as shown in the figure that.