def _scaled_dist(self, X, X2=None):
        """
        Efficiently compute the scaled distance, r.

        ..math::
            r = \sqrt( \sum_{q=1}^Q (x_q - x'q)^2/l_q^2 )

        Note that if thre is only one lengthscale, l comes outside the sum. In
        this case we compute the unscaled distance first (in a separate
        function for caching) and divide by lengthscale afterwards

        """
        if self.ARD:
            if X2 is not None:
                X2 = X2 / self.lengthscale
            return self._unscaled_dist(X/self.lengthscale, X2)
        else:
            return self._unscaled_dist(X, X2)/self.lengthscale