Talk:Averages/Mean angle: Difference between revisions

Huh, the mean angle of 90, 180, 270 and 360 is "-90.0 degrees"? Doesn't that sound a little fruity? --[[User:Ledrug|Ledrug]] 23:31, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

:Well, if done exactly, the mean of those complex numbers should be 0, and then the angle would be, well, undefined, or perhaps whatever default the library picks (like 0). But what is actually happening in this case is that the mean of those complex numbers is not calculated to be exactly 0, due to floating-point error when converting between degrees and radians, and then converting between rectangular and polar coordinates. It is a very small number that is very close to 0