Suppose I am in the business of building mathematical models for clients and a client gives me the outputs from his "random number generator" that has generated a million random numbers $x_1$, $x_2, \ldots, x_{10^6}$
all between $0$ and $1$, and all different. He would like to have a model
for the output of this random number generator as a random variable $X$.
First attempt: $X$ is a discrete random variable taking on values $x_1$, $x_2, \ldots, x_{10^6}$ with equal probability. That is indeed very satisfactory. It matches the data perfectly, the client is happy, and so am I as I pocket my fee.
But the next day, the client is back because he has run his random number
generator some more and none of the new outputs $x_{10^6+1}$,
$x_{10^6+2}, \ldots$, match what the model is predicting, viz., the
output will be one of $x_1$, $x_2, \ldots, x_{10^6}$ (with equal probability).
So, now I have to think a bit.
Second attempt: I look at the histogram of the numbers generated
by the random number generator and it looks pretty flat all the way across
$(0,1)$. It looks like $X$ can take on any real number value between
$0$ and $1$ and so I model $X$ as a continuous random variable.
But what value should I assign to, say, $P\{X = 0.2173333605\}$? It
appears just once in the list and thus has relative frequency $10^{-6}$
on the first million outcomes but looking at $x_{10^6+1}$,
$x_{10^6+2}, \ldots$, I see that the relative frequency is decaying away
towards $0$. I look at $2\times 10^6$ outputs and the relative frequency
of the value $0.2173333605$ has halved, while the relative frequency of
$0.92387634504$ is stuck at $0$ because it is not among the first two
million trials.
So since probabilities in the model should be similar to observed
relative frequencies in real life, I say $P\{X = x\} = 0$ for
every real number $x$, $0 < x < 1$. Wait a minute! Where did
the probability disappear? Well, the probability is hiding in the
intervals. Roughly $500,000$ of $x_1, \ldots, x_{10^6}$ are in
the interval $(0, 0.5)$ while roughly $1,000,000$ of
$x_1, \ldots, x_{2\times 10^6}$ are in the interval $(0, 0.5)$.
In other words, the relative frequencies of the intervals are
pretty stable but the relative frequency of a specific number
is either $0$ or decaying away towards $0$. Similar remarks
apply to other intervals. So the model for
this continuous random variable $X$ is that
- For any $a, b$ such that $0 \leq a < b \leq 1$, $P\{a < X < b\} = b-a$.
- For any $a, b$ such that $a \leq 0 < b \leq 1$, $P\{a < X < b\} = b$.
- For any $a, b$ such that $0 \leq a < 1 \leq b$, $P\{a < X < b\} = 1-a$.
- For any $a, b$ such that $a \leq 0 < 1 \leq b$, $P\{a < X < b\} = 1$.
More succinctly, for $a < b$, $P\{a < X < b\} = \min\{b, 1\} - \max\{a, 0\}$,
and $X$ is said to be uniformly distributed on $(0, 1)$. Its
probability density function is
$$f_X(x) = \begin{cases} 1, & 0 < x < 1,\\0, & \text{otherwise}.\end{cases}$$
Note that the function is nonnegative and the area under the curve is $1$. Also
$$P\{a < X < b\} = \int_a^b f_X(x) dx.$$
More generally, a continuous random variable $Y$ has a probability density
function $f_Y(y)$ that is nonnegative and has area $1$, and
$$P\{a < Y < b\} = \int_a^b f_Y(y) dy.$$
As @NickSabbe and StasK have told you, for continuous random variables,
probabilities are obtained via integrals not via sums. Indeed, it is possible
that $f_Y(y) > 1$ for some values of $y$. As long as
$$P\{-\infty < Y < \infty\} = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} f_Y(y) dy = 1$$
it is perfectly OK to have $f_Y(y) > 1$ for some values of $y$. The
density of the probability can exceed $1$, but the total probability
is $1$. Note that $f_Y(y) > 1$ will definitely break the sums that
you want to use.