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I have previous knowledge of what a random experiment is, but sometimes I get confused by the use of the word Random.

I can express my doubts as the following questions: if something is random them it is aleatory? if something has a defined distribution like in a random experiment then is not true that it is not random? If someone say something is random it is referring to a specific distribution like in a uniform distribution?

for example in the following paragraph:

Extinction is a process that can depend on a variety of ecological, geographical, and physiological variables. These variables affect different species of organisms in different ways, and should, therefore, yield a random pattern of extinctions.

It says I should be able to describe extinction with a distribution frequency?

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    $\begingroup$ This is a better question for math.stackexchange.com. At the research level, the closest thing to a precise meaning for the word "random" is something like "is a function on a probability space", but it sounds like that is not what you are looking for. $\endgroup$
    – Nate Eldredge
    Jun 19, 2020 at 15:36

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This is a great question. For instance, what does it mean to say "there is a 90% chance that it rained yesterday?" But I agree with the comments that this isn't the site where you'll get an awesome discussion going. (Maybe try math stackexchange or perhaps even a philosophy forum)

  • That said! Speaking as a mathematician who happens to specialize in probability, I have absolutely no idea what "random" means.
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