Glossary · Phase 2 · Math, when you need it
Curse of dimensionality
The ways space misbehaves as dimensions grow: distances bunch together, data gets sparse, and nearest neighbors stop being much nearer than anything else.
Try it now
The share of a ball's volume in its outer shell: 1 − (1 − thickness)ᵈ. Push the dimensions up and watch the shell swallow the ball.
Learn it properly
Strange geometry in high dimensions · Near-perpendicular random directions, bunched-up distances, and the curse of dimensionality. About 25 minutes.
Other terms from the same lesson
- Johnson-Lindenstrauss lemma: A result saying points can be projected into far fewer random dimensions while keeping their distances nearly the same.
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