What is the mathematical intuition behind PCA in Scikit-Learn?

Updated May 17, 2026

Short answer

PCA finds orthogonal directions maximizing variance using eigen decomposition or SVD.

Deep explanation

PCA computes covariance matrix of data, then extracts eigenvectors (principal components) corresponding to largest eigenvalues. These directions represent maximum variance. Data is projected onto these orthogonal axes, reducing dimensionality while preserving structure.

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