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Book Overview & Buying
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Table Of Contents
15 Math Concepts Every Data Scientist Should Know
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Decomposing a function means breaking it down into its component parts. The reason for doing so is the same as why we wanted to decompose a matrix in Chapter 3 using the eigendecomposition or using the SVD – to break it down into simpler parts. By simpler, we mean breaking a function down into a sum of functions that are easier to understand, have nicer properties, and behave in ways we understand when we transform them.
We have already answered this question to some degree. Decomposing a function,
, means writing that function as a sum of other functions. In math, that means we write the following:

Eq. 1
The number of functions,
, that we decompose,
, into could be finite or infinite. It depends on what we want to do with the decomposition on the right-hand side of Eq. 1.
We also haven’t said what the component functions,
, are yet. Again, the choice of components,
, will...