Kernels: Everything You Need to Know

Kernels or kernel functions are beautiful mathematical concepts that are used in machine learning and statistics with different forms. If you're a beginner you might feel tempted to know the exact definition of kernels, but you may get confused by multiple definitions of kernels that are explained across blogs/websites on the internet. The kernel function is a confusing concept, just because the knowledge around it is decentralized across its applications and a common intuition connecting them is missing. This (huge) blog undertakes the motive of unifying all knowledge on kernels used in different ML applications. Just as most beginners, the kernel function kept me in a state of confusion for a long time, until I developed an intuition that would connect all links.