The Calinski-Harabasz Index, also known as the Variance Ratio Criterion, is a metric used to assess the quality of clustering by measuring the ratio of the sum of between-cluster dispersion to within-cluster dispersion. A higher value indicates better-defined clusters, making it particularly useful in evaluating clustering algorithms like K-means and hierarchical clustering. This index provides a quantitative method for selecting the optimal number of clusters by comparing the compactness and separation of the formed clusters.
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