What does the definition of a random variable actually mean

probabilityprobability distributionsprobability theoryrandom variables

I am taking a probability class, and my textbook has defined the random variable in the context of a cumulative distribution function (CDF):

"A random variable has the property that sets of the form $\{ \omega: X(\omega) \le c \}$ belong to the event space $F$."

  1. What does this definition mean? Is it just trying to make explicit that the random variable depends on another variable $\omega$?
  2. What is $\omega$?
  3. What's the significance of $c$ here?

P.S.: I'm aware that this article answers a similar question, but it's in the context of sigma algebra which my class does not touch upon. I'm honestly a little confused by the answers on that page.

I'd really appreciate if you could answer my questions in plain, simple English that my engineer brain could comprehend. Thank you very much in advance.

Best Answer

To acquire a solid comprehension of the technical definition of a random variable requires measure theory, which does require sigma algebras.

I will try to give a relatively non-technical definition. First note that we require a set $\Omega$, called the sample space, which roughly contains everything that could possibly happen in our experiment. The elements $\omega \in \Omega$ are the individual outcomes that can occur.

A random variable is a function from $\Omega$ to $\mathbb R$ that has a special property that helps make rigorous probability theory work. (This special property is called being measurable, which you can look up if you want to.) So given any outcome of the experiment $\omega$, you get $X(\omega)$, which is a real number.

A CDF is a function $F(c) = P\big(\{\omega \in \Omega \colon X(\omega) \leq c \} \big)$, or more informally $P(X \leq c$), that gives the probability that the random variable $X$ is less than or equal to $c$. Specifically, the CDF is a function of $c$. (In formal probability theory, the CDF is the fundamental object from which pdfs and pmfs are derived.)

Aside: note that there is no randomness in the definition of a random variable. It's just a function.

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