What is the difference between correlation and causation?

Answer by  jak113 (7)

Causation is when something causes something to happen. Such as smoking causes lung cancer. Correlation means that something correlates with something else, or happens together for intstance smoking correlates with alcoholism.

Answer by  quisqualis (1756)

Correlation is when two things occur together. It is frequently thought to indicate causation. For example, if a black cat crosses your path and something unfortunate happens right after, it is human nature to assume that the presence of the cat was a cause of the unfortunate event.