What is correlation?

Correlation is when two things happen together, like best friends who always show up at the same time.

Imagine you have a favorite snack, let's say it's chips. Every day after school, you eat chips. Now imagine your friend also eats chips every day after school. That’s correlation, both of you eating chips happens together.

Think about the sun and the ice cream truck. When the sun comes out, people get happy and buy ice cream. So the sun and ice cream sales are correlated, one follows the other like a dance partner.

But correlation doesn’t mean one causes the other. It just means they happen together. Maybe you both eat chips because you’re both hungry after school, but it could also be that your teacher gives out free chips every day, and your friend just happens to be there too!

So correlation is like having two best friends who always show up at the same party, not necessarily because one invited the other, but because they're just really good at showing up together.