Given below are two statements: If two variables 𝑉1 and 𝑉2 are used for…

2020

Given below are two statements:

If two variables 𝑉1 and 𝑉2 are used for clustering, then consider the following statements for 𝑘 means clustering with 𝑘=3:

Statement I: If 𝑉1 and 𝑉2 have correlation of 1 the cluster centroid will be in straight line

Statement II: If 𝑉1 and 𝑉2 have correlation of 0 the cluster centroid will be in straight line

In the light of the above statements, choose the correct answer from the options given below

  1. A.

    Both Statement I and Statement II are true

  2. B.

    Both Statement I and Statement II are false

  3. C.

    Statement I is correct but Statement II is false

  4. D.

    Statement I is incorrect but Statement II is true

Attempted by 18 students.

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Correct answer: C

Answer: Statement I is correct; Statement II is false.

Key idea: In k-means clustering each cluster centroid is the mean (average) of the points assigned to that cluster.

  • Why Statement I is correct: A correlation of 1 means one variable is an exact linear function of the other, so all data points lie on a single straight line. The mean of any subset of points on that line also lies on the same line, so all cluster centroids will be collinear.

  • Why Statement II is false: A correlation of 0 indicates no linear relationship on average but does not imply that points lie on a straight line. Points can be spread in two dimensions with zero linear correlation while cluster centroids can form non-collinear arrangements (for example, clusters located near the vertices of a triangle).

Therefore, the correct choice states that the perfect-correlation case produces collinear centroids, while the zero-correlation case does not guarantee collinear centroids.

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