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Physics 15a PSI MATLAB Tutorial #3: Numerical Integration: DX 0.5 X (0:dx:2)

Matlab uses numerical integration to approximate integrals by summing the areas of boxes drawn underneath a curve. It does this by dividing the region into a large number of boxes defined by a step size, calculating the area of each box using the function value, and summing these areas. The example code provided calculates the integral from 0 to 2 of the given function by defining the limits, step size, function values, and summing the areas of boxes defined by these parameters.

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Ogugua Onyejekwe
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29 views2 pages

Physics 15a PSI MATLAB Tutorial #3: Numerical Integration: DX 0.5 X (0:dx:2)

Matlab uses numerical integration to approximate integrals by summing the areas of boxes drawn underneath a curve. It does this by dividing the region into a large number of boxes defined by a step size, calculating the area of each box using the function value, and summing these areas. The example code provided calculates the integral from 0 to 2 of the given function by defining the limits, step size, function values, and summing the areas of boxes defined by these parameters.

Uploaded by

Ogugua Onyejekwe
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Physics 15a PSI MATLAB Tutorial #3: Numerical Integration

Matlab cannot solve integrals symbolically (other programs like Mathematica can do this), but it can solve integrals numerically. To understand how Matlab does this, think back to the definition of an integral you learned in calculus: ( ) ( )

An integral can be approximated by a series of boxes drawn under the curve (see figure below); as the number of boxes increases, the approximation gets better and better. This is how Matlab can calculate integrals - it calculates the area of a large number of these boxes and sums them up.

Image credit: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/integ.html For the example shown in the figure, the integral ( ) would look like this in Matlab:

%First set the limits of integration and the step size: dx=0.5; %for N=4 x=[0:dx:2]; %this defines a vector of x values ranging from 0 to 2 in steps of 0.5. You could also use x=linspace[0:2:N], and define N=4. %Define the function: f=7*x-8.5*x.^2+3*x.^3; %Calculate the area under the curve: area=sum(f.*dx)

Enter the code as shown above and see if you get the same values as those shown in the figure for various values of dx.

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