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Generate a random 3D unit vector with uniform spherical distribution
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def random_three_vector(): | |
""" | |
Generates a random 3D unit vector (direction) with a uniform spherical distribution | |
Algo from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5408276/python-uniform-spherical-distribution | |
:return: | |
""" | |
phi = np.random.uniform(0,np.pi*2) | |
costheta = np.random.uniform(-1,1) | |
theta = np.arccos( costheta ) | |
x = np.sin( theta) * np.cos( phi ) | |
y = np.sin( theta) * np.sin( phi ) | |
z = np.cos( theta ) | |
return (x,y,z) | |
# Example IPython code to test the uniformity of the distribution | |
from pylab import scatter | |
threetups = [] | |
for _ in xrange(1000): | |
threetups.append(random_three_vector()) | |
zipped = zip(*threetups) | |
scatter(*zipped[0:2]) |
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