Exercise · ZW-LINEAR-LEAST-SQUARES-002 · ★☆☆ Basic

What are the normal equations of the least squares problem?

Choose one option.

Show answer
  • B. \(A^\top A\,x=A^\top b\)

Explanation

The normal equations are \(A^\top A\,x=A^\top b\), obtained by setting the gradient to zero. The option with \(AA^\top\) mixes up the order of the product.

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Review the concept: Linear least squares

Optimization problem that minimizes the sum of squared residuals \(\|Ax-b\|_2^2\) to approximate a vector \(b\) by linear combinations of the columns of \(A\).

\[\min_{x}\ \|Ax-b\|_2^2 \quad \Rightarrow \quad A^\top A\,x = A^\top b\]

More practice problems: linear least squares

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