Gaussian function

From Helpful
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This article/section is a stub — some half-sorted notes, not necessarily checked, not necessarily correct. Feel free to ignore, or tell me about it.

Gaussian function

Either expressed as a probability density function, defined in terms of normal distribution's mean and standard deviation:



....or as as the slightly more generalized-and-flexible:


Where:

  • a is the height of the peak
  • b the (x-axis) position of the peak (often written μ)
  • c the standard deviation (σ), controlling the width
  • d is an offset - often unused so would fall away


in 2D

Mostly just makes the exponent part more interesting because you deal with more dimensions.


When centered at zero (μ=0), it simplifies somewhat, to:




Related properties

c (is σ) is related to the Full Width at Half Maximum of the peak like:

FWHM = 2*sqrt(2*ln(2)) c)
so point at which the value is half the peak is at approximately 2.35482*c


The peak's height is that one-over-sigma-sqrt-2pi factor in front, approximately 0.399/sigma


At b+c and b-c (also the inflection points), the amount of falloff is 0.60653 (verify)



The product of two Gaussian functions is a Gaussian, with a different mean and sigma:

μf*g = (μf σg2 + μg σf2 ) / (σf2 + σg2)
σf*g = sqrt( σf2 * σg2 / (σf2 + σg2) )



http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=gaussian+function


http://www.naic.edu/~phil/notes/notes.html