A gentle introduction to principal component analysis using tea-pots, dinosaurs, and pizza

Edoardo Saccenti

doi:10.1111/test.12363

A gentle introduction to principal component analysis using tea-pots, dinosaurs, and pizza

Edoardo Saccenti^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Systems and Synthetic Biology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a powerful statistical technique for reducing the complexity of data and making patterns and relationships within the data more easily understandable. By using PCA, students can learn to identify the most important features of a data set, visualize relationships between variables, and make informed decisions based on the data. As such, PCA can be an effective tool to increase students data literacy by providing a visual and intuitive way to understand and work with data. This article outlines a teaching strategy to introduce and explain PCA using basic mathematics and statistics together with visual demonstrations.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	38-52
Journal	Teaching Statistics
Volume	46
Issue number	1
Early online date	3 Jan 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/test.12363
Publication status	Published - Jan 2024

Keywords

correlation
covariance
data analysis
data literacy
data reduction
data visualization
teaching statistics
variance
Correlation Covariance Data analysis Data literacy Data reduction Data visualization Teaching statistics Variance

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10.1111/test.12363Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

https://edepot.wur.nl/646925Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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abstract = "Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a powerful statistical technique for reducing the complexity of data and making patterns and relationships within the data more easily understandable. By using PCA, students can learn to identify the most important features of a data set, visualize relationships between variables, and make informed decisions based on the data. As such, PCA can be an effective tool to increase students data literacy by providing a visual and intuitive way to understand and work with data. This article outlines a teaching strategy to introduce and explain PCA using basic mathematics and statistics together with visual demonstrations.",

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A gentle introduction to principal component analysis using tea-pots, dinosaurs, and pizza

Abstract

Keywords

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