Gradient and the Chain Rule

3 min
Audience
ages 10–15
Duration
30 to 40 min
Adventure
3/8
Badge to earn
Gradient Explorer

Today's mission

Use a local slope to pick a small move and connect several slopes with the chain rule.

Proof of success: explain "Gradient and the chain rule", complete "The Slope Trail" and name the limit of the analogy.

The story

On a relief map, Farah looks for a lower spot without seeing the whole mountain. She measures the slope under her feet: it points in the direction where the height rises fastest. To go down, she walks the opposite way. In a network, the gradient gathers the derivatives of the loss with respect to the parameters. When a weight acts through several operations, the chain rule multiplies the local effects along the path.

Preview — the rest of the lesson is for enrolled readers.

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This lesson is part of the “How the Network Learns” module

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