Calculating linkage
Let us revisit the example with three players on a field. The distance matrix between these three players is shown below and is available as the variable dist_players.
From this we can tell that the first group that forms is between players 1 & 2, since they are the closest to one another with a Euclidean distance value of 11.
Now you want to apply the three linkage methods you have learned to determine what the distance of this group is to player 3.
| 1 | 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 11 | |
| 3 | 16 | 18 |
This exercise is part of the course
Cluster Analysis in R
Exercise instructions
- Calculate the distance from player 3 to the group of players 1 & 2 using the following three linkage methods.
- Complete: the resulting distance is based on the maximum.
- Single: the resulting distance is based on the minimum.
- Average: the resulting distance is based on the average.
Hands-on interactive exercise
Have a go at this exercise by completing this sample code.
# Extract the pair distances
distance_1_2 <- dist_players[1]
distance_1_3 <- dist_players[2]
distance_2_3 <- dist_players[3]
# Calculate the complete distance between group 1-2 and 3
complete <- max(c(___, ___))
complete
# Calculate the single distance between group 1-2 and 3
single <- ___
single
# Calculate the average distance between group 1-2 and 3
average <- ___
average