Linear regression using math or machine learning? Why even use machine learning for this? I have studied statistical math and is now taking a course in machine learning. The first example the teacher talked about is how to find a linear trend line using machine learning. Why would anybody do that? In my statistical courses we calculated linear trend-lines on datasets using far less computer power than a machine learning approach would use according to my understanding. Is linear regression using machine learning only a nice example to learn machine learning basics, or are there any real world reasons for why anyone would use machine learning to find such a simple trend line?
Linear Regression is Linear Regression regardless of how you calculate/estimate the parameters.
The question becomes significant in case of a large multi-variate dataset where it is not easy/fast/possible to compute the parameters using algebraic equations (aka fitting simple line). In such cases Machine Learning techniques such as Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) can be helpful.