I'm completely blind and come from a programming background.

What I'm trying to do is to learn machine learning, and to do this, I first need to learn about linear regression. All the explanations on the Internet I am finding about this subject plot the data first. I'm looking for a practical explanation of linear regression that is not dependent on graphs and plots.

Here is my understanding of the aim of simple linear regression:

Simple linear regression is trying to find the formula that once you give `X` to it, would provide you with the closest estimation of `Y`.

So, as I understand it, what needs to be done is to compare the predictor (for example the area of a house in square feet) with the independent variable (the price). In my example, you probably can create a non-visual way of getting the best formula to calculate the price of a house from its area. For example, maybe you would get the area and price of 1000 houses in a neighborhood, and divide the price to the area? The result (at least in Iran which is where I live) would have a very negligible variance. So you'd probably get something like this:

```
Price = 2333 Rials * Area of the house
```

So, why would you need a scatter plot and linear algebra for this?

First, am I right in my assumptions? If not, I'd love to be corrected. Whether or not I am, though, is there a way to come up with the formula without playing around with linear algebra?

I would really appreciate it if I could get an example with the explanation, so that I can do it along with the text to test my understanding.