Random Variable as a Measurement

• Think of much more complicated experiments
  • A chemical reaction.
  • A laser emitting photons.
  • A packet arriving to an IMP.

• We cannot give an exact description of a sample space in these cases, but we can still describe specific measurements on them:
  • The temperature change produced.
  • The number of photons emitted in one millisecond.
  • The time of arrival of the packet.

• Thus a random variable can be thought of as a measurement on an experiment.