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Make a list of all the things that have changed over the last century. My height has increased over the last century. How many things on that first list are c
by kbutler 9y ago
Make a list of all the things that have changed over the last century.
My height has increased over the last century.
How many things on that first list are caused by my increasing height? How many caused my increasing height?
- minikites 9y agoThings that have increased over the last century: - Calories available - Vaccination rates - Access to neo-natal care - Knowledge about fetus and infant development Correlation is insufficient to prove causation but in many cases it's a great hint.
- kbutler 9y agoSo as calories available increases, it causes my height to increase? I'm gonna need a new wardrobe... You've confused an individual trend with a trend of the aggregate maximum value. A couple of those may have a minor influence on the limit of my height, but increasing those factors has no effect on my height. Or how about my age? And don't forget other highly correlated values, like the number of movies or books published, Chinese population, cumulative deaths in war, and number of artificial satellites. There's a correlation of my age (and height) with each of those. Just two temporal trends that move in the same direction. No causation, though.