the von Mises distribution

The von Mises distribution is a way to describe how angles or directions are distributed around a circle, similar to how the normal distribution describes data along a line. It shows how likely a certain angle is compared to others, with most probabilities clustered around a central orientation. Imagine arrows spreading out around a compass needle; the von Mises distribution helps quantify this spread and concentration. It's commonly used in fields like meteorology, biology, and data science to analyze directional data, capturing both the average direction and how tightly the data is grouped around it.