My advisor occasionally kept snakes. He asked the question "What is a random variable?" in an EE qualifying exam (not mine). The correct incantation ("A measu

My advisor occasionally kept snakes. He asked the question "What is a random variable?" in an EE qualifying exam (not mine). The correct incantation ("A measurable function into the reals") was not heard from the candidate. A lot of other stuff was heard, at length. The cure for this particular case of snake bite was a remedial class in measure theory.