Random variables and probability distributions: outcomes of random experiments.

Abstract The main objectives of this chapter are to show how outcomes of random experiments can be described in real (numerical) terms and how probabilities can be assigned to these real numbers. Numerical descriptions of outcomes and their respective probabilities form what are known as probability distributions or probability density functions. These distributions can be used to compute the means and the variances of the random variables that they describe. All of these tools are useful in helping to provide further information for describing populations, e.g., forest tree seedlings.