| has gloss | eng: In probability theory and directional statistics, the von Mises distribution (also known as the circular normal distribution) is a continuous probability distribution on the circle. It may be thought of as a close approximation to the wrapped normal distribution, which is the circular analogue of the normal distribution. The von Mises distribution is more mathematically tractable than the wrapped normal distribution and is the preferred distribution for many applications. It is used in applications of directional statistics, where a distribution of angles is found which is the result of the addition of many small independent angular deviations, such as target sensing, or grain orientation in a granular material. If x is the angular random variable, it is often useful to think of the von Mises distribution as a distribution of complex numbers z = eix rather than the real numbers x. The von Mises distribution is a special case of the von Mises-Fisher distribution on the N-dimensional sphere. |
