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Hello I am using Mathematica code to to generate NPoints of randomly generated points normally distributed around one point on the surface of a sphere using

Return[Table[ RandomVariate[NormalDistribution[phi, width]], {k, 1, NPoints}]]; to find my phi and Return[Table[ RandomVariate[NormalDistribution[theta, width]], {j, 1, NPoints}]]; to find my theta.

There is an issue when I plot the points though. They seem to smear along some direction when distributed around certain thetas and phis. I think the issue is the I need a correction term for projecting my points from a plane onto a sphere but I'm having a lot of trouble finding the term because I find changing coordinate systems difficult.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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    I think you first need to define what distribution you want; it's not clear what "normally distributed around one point on the surface of a sphere" means precisely. If you want the points to be normally distributed in some Euclidean projection of the sphere, you'd have to specify the projection.2012-04-23

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