Why is the expected value (mean) of a variable written using square brackets? My question is told in a few words: Why do you write $E[X]$ in square brackets instead of something like $E(X)$? Probably it is not a "function". How would you call it then? This question also applies for $Var[X]$.

Mathematicians usually adopt square bracket such that $f[g]$, instead of $f(g)$ to indicate $f$ is a functional. Obviously, random variable $X=X(\omega)$ is a function, which makes expectation, variance and so on functionals. But this is only an unestablished convention, not necessary.
