alt Hacker NewsI agree, although there is a long tradition of terrible naming in the sciences.
One of the most boring and yet egregious examples imo is "Random Variable". So named because
- they aren't random and
- they aren't variables.[1]
A "random variable" is actually a measurable deterministic function from the set of possible outcomes of some experiment to the real numbers. But you can see why the name "random variable" is confusing to people.
[1] https://cyril9227.github.io/random-variables/ and elsewhere.
> A "random variable" is actually a measurable deterministic function from the set of possible outcomes of some experiment to the real numbers.
I don't think that this was the formalization that was used when the term was coined, given how late set and measure theory were formalized.