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1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2011

N. I. Fisher
Affiliation:
Division of Applied Physics, CSIRO, Canberra
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Summary

Circular data analysis is a curious byway of Statistics, sitting as it does somewhere between the analysis of linear data and the analysis of spherical data.

For one thing, various aspects of the subject seem trivial in comparison. A sample of linear data can be so disposed as a collection of clusters, long tails, inliers and outliers over an indefinitely large interval of the real line that no single display shows all features. A sample of spherical data can be so dispersed over the surface of the unit sphere as modal groups, transitional modal-girdle patterns and outliers that it can really only be viewed satisfactorily using a rotating three-dimensional display. By contrast, circular data cannot escape very far from each other (the notion of an outlier is of little consequence in most practical situations) and certainly cannot hide from view. So, many of the basic problems addressed in the exploratory phase of linear or spherical data analysis seem benign or non-existent for circular data.

For another, the problem of extracting practical information from circular data would appear to be tantalisingly close to the same problem for linear data, especially for concentrated data sets (i.e. data sets contained in a small arc of the circle). Approximate linearity of a small arc would seem to justify application of linear methods and so make special treatment of circular data largely unnecessary.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1993

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  • Introduction
  • N. I. Fisher, Division of Applied Physics, CSIRO, Canberra
  • Book: Statistical Analysis of Circular Data
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511564345.003
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  • Introduction
  • N. I. Fisher, Division of Applied Physics, CSIRO, Canberra
  • Book: Statistical Analysis of Circular Data
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511564345.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • N. I. Fisher, Division of Applied Physics, CSIRO, Canberra
  • Book: Statistical Analysis of Circular Data
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511564345.003
Available formats
×