numpy max vs amax vs maximum

Question

numpy has three different functions which seem like they can be used for the same things --- except that numpy.maximum can only be used element-wise, w

Answer 1

You've already stated why np.maximum is different - it returns an array that is the element-wise maximum between two arrays.

As for np.amax and np.max: they both call the same function - np.max is just an alias for np.amax, and they compute the maximum of all elements in an array, or along an axis of an array.

In [1]: import numpy as np

In [2]: np.amax
Out[2]: 

In [3]: np.max
Out[3]: