Android activity life cycle - what are all these methods for?

Question

What is the life cycle of an Android activity? Why are so many similar sounding methods (onCreate(), onStart(), onResume()) called dur

Answer 1

The entire confusion is caused since Google chose non-intuivitive names instead of something as follows:

onCreateAndPrepareToDisplay()   [instead of onCreate() ]
onPrepareToDisplay()            [instead of onRestart() ]
onVisible()                     [instead of onStart() ]
onBeginInteraction()            [instead of onResume() ]
onPauseInteraction()            [instead of onPause() ]
onInvisible()                   [instead of onStop]
onDestroy()                     [no change] 

The Activity Diagram can be interpreted as: