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Bounding sphere
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==Applications== ===Clustering=== Such spheres are useful in [[Cluster analysis|clustering]], where groups of similar data points are classified together. In [[statistical analysis]] the [[scattering (statistics)|scattering]] of [[data points]] within a sphere may be attributed to [[measurement error]] or natural (usually thermal) processes, in which case the cluster represents a perturbation of an ideal point. In some circumstances this ideal point may be used as a substitute for the points in the cluster, advantageous in reducing calculation time. In [[operations research]] the clustering of values to an ideal point may also be used to reduce the number of inputs in order to obtain approximate values for [[NP-hard]] problems in a reasonable time. The point chosen is not usually the center of the sphere, as this can be biased by outliers, but instead some form of average location such as a [[least squares]] point is computed to represent the cluster.
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