Programming Machine Learning

The Math Behind the Magic

To understand the relation between a piece of data and its label, a supervised learning system exploits a mathematical concept—the idea of approximating a function. Let’s see how that idea works, with a concrete example.

Imagine that you have a solar panel on your roof. You’d like a supervised learning system that learns how the solar panel generates energy, and predicts the amount of energy generated at some time in the future.

There are a few variables that impact the solar panel’s output: the time of day, the weather, and so on. The time of day looks like an important variable, so you decide to focus on that one. In true supervised learning fashion, you start by collecting examples of power generated at different ...