In [[information theory]], the '''conditional entropy''' quantifies the amount of information needed to describe the outcome of a [[random variable]] <math>Y</math> given that the value of another random variable <math>X</math> is known. Here, information is measured in [[Shannon (unit)|shannon]]s, [[Nat (unit)|nat]]s, or [[Hartley (unit)|hartley]]s. The ''entropy of <math>Y</math> conditioned on <math>X</math>'' is written as H(X ǀ Y). | In [[information theory]], the '''conditional entropy''' quantifies the amount of information needed to describe the outcome of a [[random variable]] <math>Y</math> given that the value of another random variable <math>X</math> is known. Here, information is measured in [[Shannon (unit)|shannon]]s, [[Nat (unit)|nat]]s, or [[Hartley (unit)|hartley]]s. The ''entropy of <math>Y</math> conditioned on <math>X</math>'' is written as H(X ǀ Y). |