Correlation and Causation
I have a pink top that I consider unlucky because every time I wore it, I had a terrible day. As Michael Scott would say, "I am not superstitious, but I am a little stitious". So I stopped wearing it since I realized this. Many a times in life my friends and I have behaved in a similar way, found two entities that correlate and implied that there was causation. Well what do those two things mean? Correlation is when two variables either positively or negatively change together. There is association between them, when one changes, so does the other. Causation is when two variables have a cause effect relation. One is directly affecting the other. However, Correlation does NOT imply causation. Just because two things seem to be, does not mean that they necessarily are related. Let's look at some fun examples. Below attached is a graph of per capita consumption of cheese in the USA and Number of people who have died by becoming tangled in their bedsheets. This clearly shows ...