What is causation?

Causation is when one thing makes another thing happen, like a push starts a swing.

Imagine you're on a swing at the park. You push yourself, and the swing moves. That’s causation: your push caused the swing to move. Without the push, the swing would just sit there.

Think of it like a game of dominoes. When you knock over the first domino, it hits the next one, which hits the next, and so on. The first domino being knocked over is the cause, and all the others falling are the effects.

Or think about baking cookies. If you forget to put in sugar, your cookies might be too bitter. That’s because not having sugar was the cause, and bitter cookies were the effect.

Causation doesn’t always mean one thing happens right after another, sometimes it takes time or needs help from other things, like how a seed grows into a tree. But there's always something that starts it all off! Causation is when one thing makes another thing happen, like a push starts a swing.

Imagine you're on a swing at the park. You push yourself, and the swing moves. That’s causation: your push caused the swing to move. Without the push, the swing would just sit there.

Think of it like a game of dominoes. When you knock over the first domino, it hits the next one, which hits the next, and so on. The first domino being knocked over is the cause, and all the others falling are the effects.

Or think about baking cookies. If you forget to put in sugar, your cookies might be too bitter. That’s because not having sugar was the cause, and bitter cookies were the effect.

Causation doesn’t always mean one thing happens right after another, sometimes it takes time or needs help from other things, like how a seed grows into a tree. But there's always something that starts it all off!