Broadcasting for outer products in NumPy - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Broadcasting for Outer Products

📖 Scenario: Imagine you run a small bakery. You want to find out how many cookies you can make if you combine different numbers of dough balls with different baking trays. Each dough ball makes one cookie, and each tray can bake a certain number of cookies at once.

🎯 Goal: You will create two arrays: one for the number of dough balls and one for the number of trays. Then, you will use broadcasting to calculate the total number of cookies you can bake for every combination of dough balls and trays.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a numpy array called dough_balls with values [2, 4, 6]

Create a numpy array called baking_trays with values [1, 3, 5]

Use broadcasting to calculate the outer product of dough_balls and baking_trays

Store the result in a variable called total_cookies

Print the total_cookies array

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Bakers and food businesses often need to calculate production quantities for different ingredient and equipment combinations quickly.

💼 Career

Data scientists use broadcasting to perform efficient calculations on large datasets without writing slow loops.

1

Create the dough balls array

Create a numpy array called dough_balls with the exact values [2, 4, 6].

NumPy

import numpy as np
# Create the dough_balls array with values [2, 4, 6]
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use np.array to create the array with the given values.

2

Create the baking trays array

Create a numpy array called baking_trays with the exact values [1, 3, 5].

NumPy

import numpy as np

dough_balls = np.array([2, 4, 6])
# Create the baking_trays array with values [1, 3, 5]
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use np.array to create the array with the given values.

3

Calculate the outer product using broadcasting

Use broadcasting to calculate the outer product of dough_balls and baking_trays. Store the result in a variable called total_cookies. Use the expression dough_balls[:, None] * baking_trays.

NumPy

import numpy as np

dough_balls = np.array([2, 4, 6])

baking_trays = np.array([1, 3, 5])
# Calculate total_cookies using broadcasting
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use dough_balls[:, None] to reshape dough_balls for broadcasting.

4

Print the total cookies array

Print the total_cookies array to see the result.

NumPy

import numpy as np

dough_balls = np.array([2, 4, 6])

baking_trays = np.array([1, 3, 5])

total_cookies = dough_balls[:, None] * baking_trays
# Print the total_cookies array
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use print(total_cookies) to display the array.