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regression methods for circular(?) data.

On 26-Sep-05 Witold Eryk Wolski wrote:
Although I really knew them from the way you generated the data,
I "pretended" I did not know them.

Read below: "If you know the modulus (in your case 1.0)" -- I did
assume that this was known, i.e. that the data "wrap round" to 0
above 1.0. Also: "the constants 0.9/200, -50 being chosen to give
a good separation on the graph" -- I plotted the data, and saw that
the "wrapped" data were well separated, and that 0.9*(x-50)/200
was an adequate discriminant function. This was estimated purely by
eye, by looking at the graph, to find some line that went between
the two groups of data; no attempt was made to calculate anything
precisely. Apart from assuming that the modulus was 1.0, and that
the well-separated data at the bottom right of the graph were
"wrapped round" data, no other information was used by me!

So the question remains: If you can assume that the modulus is 1.0,
and that the wrapped-round data will be well separated, then all
is simple. All you need to do is to "unwrap" the "wrapped" data
by adding 1.0, having first identified them by virtue of their
obvious separation. Then you can estimate the slope by using 'lm'.

But:-- if you, Witold, can not assume these two things for your
real data, what can we assume in considering your question?
Is the modulus unknown, for instance? Is the scatter so large that
the groups are not well separated? Might we have "twice-wrapped"
data (i.e. original y > 2)? 

In short, do your real data look like the data you sent us, and
are they wrapped at 1.0? or what?

With thanks, and best wishes,
Ted.
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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk>
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Date: 26-Sep-05                                       Time: 18:08:28
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