Correlation ≠ Causation

I’m teaching correlations to my math students. I harp on the fact that correlation ≠ causation. How many times I read something in the news where two things happen and therefore one causes the other. 

This is a favorite of mine. There’s a 97% correlation between marriages rate in Idaho and Murders by hanging, strangulation and suffocation. 

Often times, correlations are simply spurious. 

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Source: http://tylervigen.com/view_correlation?id=12819