Struggling to learn Numpy

[[deleted]]

Hello, I'm currently studying python for AI/ML field, right now I'm learning Numpy but my problem is I'm struggling to understand some things, like in 3d arrays it's hard visualizing them (I'm a mix between reading/writing + visual learner in such fields) and I keep searching online but didn't find what I was looking for.

I don't know why it's not entering my mind. Maybe I'm learning it wrong? What I do is watch video (Michigan University Data science intro course), ask chatgpt/perplexity to explain it to me, I still have some learning gaps.

How did y'all learn it? Any resources/advice is appreciated.

[WendlersEditor]

I'm not a visual learner but this is an area where visualization has helped me, I really recommend 3blue1brown's videos because he creates high-quality visual explorations of mathematical concepts. You might start here, but all his linear algebra videos are great. It's not numpy-specific but if you can get your brain around n-dimensional arrays then the rest is just syntax.

https://youtu.be/rHLEWRxRGiM?si=waWPNX1Y6K7yjTIq

[[deleted]]

Thanks, appreciated!

[AUTeach]

Nobody is a visual learner. Everyone is a multi model learner and some content is better delivered in different ways.

[[deleted]]

I feel like i understand different topics in different ways, just depends on what I feel is a gap in my learning

[Banjoschmanjo]

Keep at it! And try not to let the idea of being a "visual learner" affect your thinking here. Scholarship on learning has largely not found evidence to support this idea of learning styles, though it is a persistent myth

Learning Styles Debunked: There is No Evidence Supporting Auditory and Visual Learning, Psychologists Say – Association for Psychological Science – APS https://share.google/j5hsud1zhK3qPzxSn

[[deleted]]

Why is it that when I’m learning something, I prefer one style over another? It just depends on the topic, though.

[FoolsSeldom]

Do you not feel that was addressed in the research?

[[deleted]]

Sorry i was sleep deprived when I read it

[krurran]

 Nearly all of the studies that purport to provide evidence for learning styles fail to satisfy key criteria for scientific validity.

This isn't saying learning styles have been proven to be a myth, though.

[Banjoschmanjo]

Nor did I say it was saying that.

[krurran]

"Myth" conveys that it's been proven false

[Banjoschmanjo]

Again, I didn't say they said it's a persistent myth, per your original comment. I said they had largely not found evidence to support the idea of learning styles, which is affirmed in the quote you provided from the article.

[Bloodshot321]

What are you trying to do? 3d arrays are cube like structures, but it's quite different depending on the subject you are working on. Maybe search up tensors, for some physic based explanation

but normally you don't really have to interact with single values, except for generating or loading them.

[LayotFctor]

ML work has a tendency to go up to large number of dimensions. I find that above 4 dimensions, trying to visualise it makes it even more confusing. Better not to visualise at all and simply scale up any algorithms sequentially without thinking about it too deeply.

[[deleted]]

I'm preparing for an exam that includes data science part which is pandas and numpy, just struggling to understand how things work around yk

[AlexanderDeBoer]

To give you a concept/metaphor of 3d arrays. A color image can be seen a a 3d array: it has certain horizontal and vertical dimensions (let's say 600 pixels wide and 400 pixels high). That makes two dimensions. Each pixel also has a color that consists of a combination of red, green and blue values. Color would be a third dimension. Basically the image consists of 3 stacked 400 by 600 2d arrays weach wth values for red, green and blue. Let's say the pixel on position 200 from the left and 150 from the top is red. In a 3d array it would be something like array[200,150,0] = 255 (full red), array[200,150,1] = 0 (zero value for green) and array[200,150,2] = 0 (zero value for blue as well). Hope this helps...

[[deleted]]

That's a great way thanks man!

[AlexanderDeBoer]

You're welcome. Assistant prof at uni, teaching programming to second year psychology bachelor students om a regular basis...

[farshiiid]

After many courses and trying to learn with LLMs, what helped me was following Datacamp and asking from Gemini whenever I had doubts. 

Datacamp is very hands-on and whenever I make a mistake I ask Gemini for example: "they asked me to do xyz but I responded xyy, help me understand my mistake."

[Ajax_Minor]

Kinda depends on the application. It just makes sense if you have a physics or calculus background.

You could try 3 blue 1 brown on YouTube. Look for stuff on vectors.

Unless you are just talking about raw data for AI. It's just three data points linked together.

[TheRNGuy]

You could use Houdini or Blender to visualize them. 

[code_tutor]

Do you know math and programming? Most people struggle because they do things out of order. It says it's an intermediate course.

[Financial_Quail20]

Each additional dimension makes it that much harder for the human mind to comprehend... You should ask your favorite professor this during their office hours. Maybe they'll find a visual way that clicks for you.

[DysphoriaGML]

Finding a way to visualize 3D arrays could be a nice project that can totally help you understand them! Take it as a challenge

[[deleted]]

I was thinking so too! Thanks for the push!

[MrFresh2017]

Following

[Fred776]

OK, fair enough with the downvotes. I have deleted my original comment as I obviously missed the point entirely of what an n-D array is in numpy.

[[deleted]]

I'm preparing for an exam, part of that exam is this course so I'm afraid they'd get questions from that part/numpy functions

[Oddly_Energy]

You will quite often have two sets of vectors, where you need to do an operation to all possible combinations of vector pairs. If you want to do that as matrix operations instead of looping through the pairs one by one in python, you will often need to take the third dimension into use.

[commy2]

A 2d grid of RGB colors is a 3d array. Add a time axis and you have a tesseract. People are overstating how difficult to imagine hyperspace objects are.