Graphics

Histograms in Polar Coordinate Systems

A rose plot is a histogram created in a polar coordinate system. For example, consider samples of the wind direction taken over a 12-hour period.

wdir = [45 90 90 45 360 335 360 270 335 270 335 335];

To display this data using the rose function, convert the data to radians; then use the data as an argument to the rose function. Increase the LineWidth property of the line to improve the visibility of the plot (findobj).

wdir = wdir * pi/180;
rose(wdir)
hline = findobj(gca,'Type','line');
set(hline,'LineWidth',1.5)

The plot shows that the wind direction was primarily 335° during the 12-hour period.

Histograms in Cartesian Coordinate Systems

Specifying Number of Bins