An Introduction to Discrete Random Variables

What is a random variable?

It’s just a variable where the outcome or value is uncertain. That isn’t to say that you have no idea what the value will be, just that it’s not guaranteed. A coin flip is a random variable in that you don’t know what the outcome will be beforehand, but you do have knowledge of the ‘structure’ of the randomness. Only two outcomes are possible, and each has a 50% chance to occur (for a fair coin).

Now that you’ve heard from Adrian talking about discrete random variables and we have a good foundation, you should be ready for the next step where we will hear about how we calculate and interpret the expectation of a random variable.