First Component in PCA





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I was doing the Andrew Ng's ML course, and one of the solutions mentioned The first principal component is aligned with the direction of maximal variance.



I didn't get what it is trying to say.










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    I was doing the Andrew Ng's ML course, and one of the solutions mentioned The first principal component is aligned with the direction of maximal variance.



    I didn't get what it is trying to say.










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      I was doing the Andrew Ng's ML course, and one of the solutions mentioned The first principal component is aligned with the direction of maximal variance.



      I didn't get what it is trying to say.










      share|cite|improve this question







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      I was doing the Andrew Ng's ML course, and one of the solutions mentioned The first principal component is aligned with the direction of maximal variance.



      I didn't get what it is trying to say.







      machine-learning pca






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      asked 6 hours ago









      user3656142user3656142

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          $begingroup$

          Welcome to CV!



          PCA finds the linear combination of your original input variables that contains the largest possible variance among all input variables. This is the first principal component, and it will thus by definition "align with the direction of maximal variance". The second principal component is then a linear combination independent of the first PC, with the largest remaining variance, and so on.





          Consider this mock example:



          There are two input variables (bacterial colony size and relative expression of a fluorescent protein). However, it turns out that larger colonies express less fluorescent protein (i.e., the input variables are correlated). The first PC will then be in the direction of this combined variance of the two input variables, because this is the largest total variance that a linear combination can find. The second PC will do the same, but perpendicular to PC1.



          PCA






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            $begingroup$

            Welcome to CV!



            PCA finds the linear combination of your original input variables that contains the largest possible variance among all input variables. This is the first principal component, and it will thus by definition "align with the direction of maximal variance". The second principal component is then a linear combination independent of the first PC, with the largest remaining variance, and so on.





            Consider this mock example:



            There are two input variables (bacterial colony size and relative expression of a fluorescent protein). However, it turns out that larger colonies express less fluorescent protein (i.e., the input variables are correlated). The first PC will then be in the direction of this combined variance of the two input variables, because this is the largest total variance that a linear combination can find. The second PC will do the same, but perpendicular to PC1.



            PCA






            share|cite|improve this answer









            $endgroup$


















              2












              $begingroup$

              Welcome to CV!



              PCA finds the linear combination of your original input variables that contains the largest possible variance among all input variables. This is the first principal component, and it will thus by definition "align with the direction of maximal variance". The second principal component is then a linear combination independent of the first PC, with the largest remaining variance, and so on.





              Consider this mock example:



              There are two input variables (bacterial colony size and relative expression of a fluorescent protein). However, it turns out that larger colonies express less fluorescent protein (i.e., the input variables are correlated). The first PC will then be in the direction of this combined variance of the two input variables, because this is the largest total variance that a linear combination can find. The second PC will do the same, but perpendicular to PC1.



              PCA






              share|cite|improve this answer









              $endgroup$
















                2












                2








                2





                $begingroup$

                Welcome to CV!



                PCA finds the linear combination of your original input variables that contains the largest possible variance among all input variables. This is the first principal component, and it will thus by definition "align with the direction of maximal variance". The second principal component is then a linear combination independent of the first PC, with the largest remaining variance, and so on.





                Consider this mock example:



                There are two input variables (bacterial colony size and relative expression of a fluorescent protein). However, it turns out that larger colonies express less fluorescent protein (i.e., the input variables are correlated). The first PC will then be in the direction of this combined variance of the two input variables, because this is the largest total variance that a linear combination can find. The second PC will do the same, but perpendicular to PC1.



                PCA






                share|cite|improve this answer









                $endgroup$



                Welcome to CV!



                PCA finds the linear combination of your original input variables that contains the largest possible variance among all input variables. This is the first principal component, and it will thus by definition "align with the direction of maximal variance". The second principal component is then a linear combination independent of the first PC, with the largest remaining variance, and so on.





                Consider this mock example:



                There are two input variables (bacterial colony size and relative expression of a fluorescent protein). However, it turns out that larger colonies express less fluorescent protein (i.e., the input variables are correlated). The first PC will then be in the direction of this combined variance of the two input variables, because this is the largest total variance that a linear combination can find. The second PC will do the same, but perpendicular to PC1.



                PCA







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                answered 4 hours ago









                Frans RodenburgFrans Rodenburg

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