R-Squared is just the square of R

So let’s begin at R.

In this article I will be talking about 3 things with a little or no humor at all: correlation, causation will be a bonus and of course R squared.

What’s R?

The regular ‘R’ or just R is called a correlation coefficient. This is a measure of the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables. It tells us how much one variable changes with another. For example, the weather and ice cream sales. The hotter the day, the more ice cream sales there will be—this is a positive correlation. An idea of a negative correlation would be that the more you workout, the lower body fat you’ll obtain. To turn this into something positive because people strive for the quixotic optimism; the more you workout, the more calories you burn.

Of course there are types to this; every good definition comes with its segregated types.

1. Positive Correlation (R > 0): As one variable increases, the other also increases. The more you sleep, the more productive you are the next day.
2. Negative Correlation (R<0): As one variable increases, the other decreases. The older you get, the slower your metabolism becomes.

No correlation at all (R = 0) is not really a type, but your shoe size and IQ have nothing in relevance…