Multidimensional Scaling

Explore the concept of Multidimensional scaling in this 46-minute talk by Andor Vari-Kakas. Discover how to arrange items in space based on observed pairwise differences, determine the necessary number of dimensions, and interpret the resulting coordinate system axes. Delve into the underlying linear algebra to derive Torgerson-scaling and examine optimization methods like Kruskal's algorithm for imperfect arrangements. Learn through practical examples how professionals in various fields, including sociology, linguistics, mathematics, and even football coaching, apply MDS. Topics covered include motivation, air distances, color vision, intuition, Torgerson algorithm, dimensionality issues, MDS versions, non-metric MDS, graph plotting, country comparisons, letter confusion, attribute-to-coordinate mapping, political party analysis, and football applications.