Why Squared and divide by 2

Course Q&A Machine Learning Specialization Supervised ML: Regression and Classification
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1

In the equations for cost function, why the difference is squared and why it is divided by 2?

J = 1/2m sum(f(x) - y^)**2;

Its not very clear why it is squared and why it is divided by 2.

2

Please see these links:

  1. Link 1
  2. Link 2
1 Like
3

ok. thanks