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Hierarchical Clustering

Explore hierarchical clustering using the agglomerative approach in scikit-learn. Understand differences from K-means clustering, especially when data does not fit spherical assumptions. Learn to implement agglomerative clustering for flexible and accurate data grouping without relying on centroids or shape constraints.

Chapter Goals:

  • Learn about hierarchical clustering using the agglomerative approach

A. K-means vs. hierarchical clustering

A major assumption that the K-means clustering algorithm makes is that the dataset consists of spherical (i.e. circular) clusters. With this assumption, the K-means algorithm will create clusters of data observations that are circular around the centroids. However, real life data often does ...