Gradient

A gradient is a measure of how much a specific quantity, like a function or a surface, changes as you move in different directions. Think of it as a slope or incline: it indicates how steep a hill is at a particular point and which way it rises or falls most rapidly. In mathematics and machine learning, the gradient helps us understand how to adjust inputs to maximize or minimize an output, guiding optimization processes like finding the lowest point in a landscape or the fastest way to improve a model's performance.