ML Math Derivations (8): Support Vector Machines

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Hook. You have two clouds of points and infinitely many lines that separate them. Which line is “best”? SVM gives a startlingly geometric answer: the line that sits in the middle of the widest empty corridor between the two classes. Push that single idea through Lagrangian duality and it produces a sparse model (only the points on the corridor wall matter), a quadratic program with a global optimum, and — almost as a free gift — the kernel trick that lets the same linear machinery carve curved boundaries in infinite-dimensional spaces.

Support Vector Machines on Chen Kai Blog

ML Math Derivations (8): Support Vector Machines