# Probability distribution for smallest angle between 3 lines

I was running a computer simulation to get the distribution of smallest angle between 3 random lines (in $$2$$D) lying on the unit circle (i.e. lines between the center and the circumference). Explicitly, I draw 3 numbers uniformly in $$[0,2\pi]$$. I define $$v_i = (\cos{\theta_i},\sin{\theta_i})$$, and calculate $$d\theta_1 = \arccos (v_1\cdot v_2)$$ $$d\theta_2 = \arccos (v_1\cdot v_3)$$ $$d\theta_3 = \arccos (v_2\cdot v_3)$$ I calculate $$\Theta = \min\{d\theta_1,d\theta_2,d\theta_3\}$$. I run this a lot of times to get a distribution:

where the $$x$$-axis is $$\Theta$$ in radians. I do not know how exactly to calculate this analytically, but even more importantly I look for intuition. This distribution tells us that the most probable result is that two out of three randomly chosen directions will fall on top of each other. This is counter-intuitive for me. My (obviously wrong) intuition tells me that this should peak around (maybe not exactly) the mean, $$\frac{\pi}{3}$$.

• so this is a histogram of $\Theta$ values right ? – Ahmad Bazzi Jan 9 '19 at 13:13
• @AhmadBazzi Yes – Joshhh Jan 9 '19 at 13:15
• When you say "random lines", what are you referring to? Are you referring to the lines connecting your three points, or the lines connecting those points to the centre? – Accidental Statistician Jan 9 '19 at 13:24
• @AccidentalStatistician The latter – Joshhh Jan 9 '19 at 13:29
• You could use $\cos(x-y) = \cos(x) \cos(y) + \sin(x) \sin(y)$ to simplify $d\theta_i$. Then you find that every $d\theta_i$ is following the same triangle distribution after which you can compute the distribution of the minimum by standard means. – Stockfish Jan 9 '19 at 14:06

It is a little hard to see, but the probability that $$\theta_1$$ is less than $$\theta_2$$ and $$\theta_3$$ is $$\frac{2 \pi - 3 \theta_1}{2 \pi}$$. To see this, imagine that $$\theta_1\in(0, 2\pi/3)$$, $$v_1 = (1,0)$$, $$v_2 = (\cos \theta_1, \sin \theta_1)$$, and $$v_3=(\cos \alpha, \sin \alpha)$$ where $$\alpha\in (-\pi, \pi)$$. Then the only way that $$\theta_1$$ can be less that $$\min(\theta_2,\theta_3)$$ is if $$\alpha>2\theta_1$$ or $$\alpha<-\theta_1$$. (Note that $$\theta_2 = |\alpha|$$).
If you now believe that $$P(\theta_1 <\min(\theta_2,\theta_3) | \theta_1=\theta) = \frac{2 \pi - 3 \theta}{2 \pi},$$ then the cumulative distribution $$F(\beta)= P(\theta_1<\beta | \theta_1 <\min(\theta_2,\theta_3)$$ is $$F(\beta)= \frac{\int_{\theta_1=0}^\beta \frac{2 \pi - 3 \theta_1}{2 \pi}\;d\theta_1}{\int_{\theta_1=0}^{2 \pi/3}\frac{2 \pi - 3 \theta_1}{2 \pi}\;d\theta_1}$$ $$= \frac{\int_{\theta_1=0}^\beta \frac{2 \pi - 3 \theta_1}{2 \pi}\;d\theta_1}{\pi/3}.$$ The probability density function for $$\theta_1$$ given $$\theta_1 <\min(\theta_2,\theta_3)$$ is $$F'(\theta_1) = \frac{\frac{2 \pi - 3 \theta_1}{2 \pi}}{\pi/3} = \frac3\pi - \frac{ 9\theta_1}{2 \pi^2}$$ which matches your histogram.
First of all, we simplify the problem by noticing that the angles $$d\theta_k$$ are the absolute differences between pairs of the original angles $$\theta_k$$. If we set one of the original angles to be $$0$$, this is equivalent to cutting a stick of length $$2\pi$$ into three pieces, by making two cuts whose position on the stick is uniformly distributed, and looking at the distribution of the length of the shortest piece.