How Did These Everyday Statistical Concepts Happen to Be the Way They Are?

A short history to put you in the scientists’ shoes and see the world through their eyes.

We all had these questions when we first learned about the basic statistical terms in primary school:

Why is standard deviation (𝜎) or variance (𝜎²) the way they are? We intuitively get the part where we calculate how far each sample (x) is from the mean (μ). That’s what deviation sounds like after all. But why is it squared, then?