Talk:Averages/Mean angle: Difference between revisions
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:: It's not just a question of numerical stability, the real problem is that "average of directions" is a bad concept. "Mean" is inherently tied to summation, but summing directions is just ridiculous. What happens when you add east to north, do you get west, south, or north by northeast maybe?
:: Besides--it's moot--to get an angle out of a vector, atan(y/x) is no good: you need atan2(y, x). --[[User:Ledrug|Ledrug]] 07:42, 10 July 2012 (UTC)
:::Not so ridiculous. If you have flashes at a distance that you think are localized then you could measure their bearing and want some numerical number that indicates where they are likely to be coming from. An average of the individual, circular, bearings would help. I have to read a bit more about opposite directions but there was something about the size of the radius of the resultant for me to grasp. --[[User:Paddy3118|Paddy3118]] 08:28, 10 July 2012 (UTC)
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