10161

INTRODUCTION TO MATLAB

MATLAB, which stands for MATrix LABoratory, is a state-of-the-art mathematical

software package, which is used extensively in both academia and industry. It is an
interactive program for numerical computation and data visualization, which along with
its programming capabilities provides a very useful tool for almost all areas of science
and engineering. Unlike other mathematical packages, such as MAPLE or
MATHEMATICA, MATLAB cannot perform symbolic manipulations without the use of
additional Toolboxes. It remains however, one of the leading software packages for
numerical computation.As you might guess from its name, MATLAB deals mainly with
matrices. A scalar is a 1-by-1 matrix and a row vector of length say 5, is a 1-by-5 matrix.
We will elaborate more on these and other features of MATLAB in the sections that
follow. One of the many advantages ofMATLAB is the natural notation used. It looks a
lot like the notation that you encounter in a linear algebra course. This makes the use of
the program especially easy and it is what makes MATLAB a natural choice for
numerical computations.
Double-click on the MATLAB icon and off you go ... Note: It is possible that the first
time you do this, you may have to install some client software on your PC. Simply follow
the instructions on the webpage (after you login) and you should be fine.
The program will start in a new window and once you see the prompt (») you will be
ready to begin … The current (working) sub-directory is by default
d:\Applications\matlabR14. You should not be saving any of your work in the default
directory. Instead, you should switch to the G:\ drive that contains your account, by
issuing the command
>> cd g:\
from within MATLAB. Talk to your professor for further instructions on how and where
to save your work.
After you are done with MATLAB don’t forget to logout of the MetaFrame Presentation
Server.

MATLAB prompt (») will be used to indicate where the commands are entered.
Anything you see after this prompt denotes user input (i.e. a command) followed by a
carriage return (i.e. the “enter” key). Often, input is followed by output so unless
otherwise specified the line(s) that follow a command will denote output (i.e.
MATLAB’s response to what you typed in). MATLAB is case-sensitive, which means
that a + B is not the same as a + b. Different fonts, like the ones you just
witnessed, will also be used to simulate the interactive session. This can be seen in the
example below:
e.g. MATLAB can work as a calculator. If we ask MATLAB to add two numbers, we get
the
answer we expect.
» 3 + 4
ans =7
As we will see, MATLAB is much more than a “fancy” calculator.
 10161

MATLAB BASICS

The basic features

Let us start with something simple, like defining a row vector with components the
numbers 1, 2,
3, 4, 5 and assigning it a variable name, say x.
» x = [1 2 3 4 5]
x =
1 2 3 4 5
Note that we used the equal sign for assigning the variable name x to the vector, brackets
to enclose its entries and spaces to separate them. (Just like you would using the linear
algebra notation). We could have used commas ( , ) instead of spaces to separate the
entries, or even a combination of the two. The use of either spaces or commas is
essential!
To create a column vector (MATLAB distinguishes between row and column vectors, as
it should) we can either use semicolons ( ; ) to separate the entries, or first define a row
vector and take its transpose to obtain a column vector. Let us demonstrate this by
defining a column vector y with entries 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 using both techniques.
5
» y = [6;7;8;9;10]
y = 6 7 8 9 10
» y = [6,7,8,9,10]
y = 6 7 8 9 10
» y'
ans = 6 7 8 9 10
Let us make a few comments. First, note that to take the transpose of a vector (or a
matrix for that matter) we use the single quote ( ' ). Also note that MATLAB repeats
(after it processes) what we typed in. Sometimes, however, we might not wish to “see”
the output of a specific command. We can suppress the output by using a semicolon ( ; )
at the end of the command line.
Finally, keep in mind that MATLAB automatically assigns the variable name ans to
anything that has not been assigned a name. In the example above, this means that a new
variable has been created with the column vector entries as its value. The variable ans,
however, gets recycled and every time we type in a command without assigning a
variable, ans gets that value. It is good practice to keep track of what variables are
defined and occupy our workspace. Due to the fact that this can be cumbersome,
MATLAB can do it for us. The command whos gives allsorts of information on what
variables are active.
» whos
Name Size Elements Bytes Density Complex
ans 5 by 1 5 40 Full No
x 1 by 5 5 40 Full No
y 1 by 5 5 40 Full No
Grand total is 15 elements using 120 bytes
A similar command, called who, only provides the names of the variables that are active.
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» who
Your variables are:
ans x y
If we no longer need a particular variable we can “erase” it from memory using the
command clear variable_name. Let us clear the variable ans and check that
we indeed did so.
» clear ans
» who
Your variables are:
x y
The command clear used by itself, “erases” all the variables from the memory. Be
careful, as this is not reversible and you do not have a second chance to change your
mind.
You may exit the program using the quit command. When doing so, all variables are
lost.
However, invoking the command save filename before exiting, causes all variables
to be written to a binary file called filename.mat. When we start MATLAB again,
we may retrieve the information in this file with the command load filename. We
can also create an ascii (text) file containing the entire MATLAB session if we use the
command diary filename at the beginning and at the end of our session. This will
create a text file called filename (with no extension) that can be edited with any text
editor, printed out etc. This file will include everything we typed into MATLAB during
the session (including error messages but excluding plots). We could also use the
command save filename at the end of our session to create the binary file described
above as well as the text file that includes our work.
One last command to mention before we start learning some more interesting things
about MATLAB, is the help command. This provides help for any existing MATLAB
command.
Let us try this command on the command who.
» help who
WHO List current variables.
WHO lists the variables in the current workspace.
WHOS lists more information about each variable.
WHO GLOBAL and WHOS GLOBAL list the variables in the
global workspace.
Try using the command help on itself!
On a PC, help is also available from the Window Menus. Sometimes it is easier to look up
command from the list provided there, instead of using the command line help.

Vectors and matrices

To define vectors (and matrices) that contain equally spaced entries. This can be done by
specifying the first entry, an increment, and the last entry. MATLAB will automatically
figure out how many entries you need and their values. For example, to create a vector
whose entries are 0, 1, 2, 3, …, 7, 8, you can type
 10161

» u = [0:8]
u = 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Here we specified the first entry 0 and the last entry 8, separated by a colon ( : ).
MATLAB automatically filled-in the (omitted) entries using the (default) increment 1.
You could also
specify an increment as is done in the next example.To obtain a vector whose entries are
0, 2, 4, 6, and 8, you can type in the following line:
» v = [0:2:8]
v = 0 2 4 6 8
Here we specified the first entry 0, the increment value 2, and the last entry 8. The two
colons ( :) “tell” MATLAB to fill in the (omitted) entries using the specified increment
value.
MATLAB will allow you to look at specific parts of the vector. If you want, for example,
to onlylook at the first 3 entries in the vector v, you can use the same notation you used to
create the
vector:
» v(1:3)
ans = 0 2 4
Note that we used parentheses, instead of brackets, to refer to the entries of the vector.
Since weomitted the increment value, MATLAB automatically assumes that the
increment is 1. The following command lists the first 4 entries of the vector v, using the
increment value 2 :
» v(1:2:4)
ans =0 4
8 Defining a matrix is similar to defining a vector. To define a matrix A, you can treat it
like a column of row vectors. That is, you enter each row of the matrix as a row vector
(remember to separate the entries either by commas or spaces) and you separate the rows
by semicolons ( ; ).
» A = [1 2 3; 3 4 5; 6 7 8]
A =1 2 3
3 4 5
6 7 8
We can avoid separating each row with a semicolon if we use a carriage return instead. In
other
words, we could have defined A as follows
» A = [1 2 3
3 4 5
6 7 8]
A=1 2 3
3 4 5
6 7 8
which is perhaps closer to the way we would have defined A by hand using the linear
algebra notation.
You can refer to a particular entry in a matrix by using parentheses. For example, the
number 5 lies in the 2nd row, 3rd column of A, thus
» A(2,3)
ans = 5
 10161

PRACTICAL NO.1
AIM: Illustrate the simple mathematical expression in MATLAB.
1. z=2^5/2^5-1
PROGRAM
clc;
clear all;
close all;
x=2^5
y=x-1
z=x/y

RESULT:
x =32
y =31
z =1.0323

2. [3(sqrt (5)-1)/ (sqrt (5)+1)^2]-1

PROGRAM
clc;
clear all;
close all;
x= sqrt (5)-1
y= sqrt (5)+1
z=y*y
a=3*x/z
b=a-1

RESULT
x =1.2361
y =3.236
z =10.4721
a =0.3541
b = -0.6459

3. Area=pi*r^2; r=pi^1/3
PROGRAM
clc;
clear all;
close all;
r=pi^1/3
Area= pi*r^2

RESULT
r =1.0472
Area = 3.4451
 10161

4. exp(pi* sqrt (163))

PROGRAM
clc;
clear all;
close all;
x= pi * sqrt(163)
y= exp (x)

RESULT
x = 40.1092
y =2.6254e+017

5. y= (sin pi/6)^2 + (cos pi/6)^2

PROGRAM
clc;
clear all;
close all;
a=sin(pi/6)
b=a*a
c=cos(pi/6)
d=c*c
y=b+d

RESULT
a = 0.5000
b = 0.2500
c = 0.8660
d = 0.7500
y=1

6.exp(i*pi/4)
PROGRAM
clc;
clear all;
close all;
x= exp (i*pi/4)

RESULT
x = 0.7071 + 0.7071i
 10161

7. t= exp(pi/(4*i))
PROGRAM
clc;
clear all;
close all;
x= 4*i
t= exp(pi/x)

RESULT
x = 0 + 4.0000i
t = 0.7071 - 0.7071i

8. [sin (t^2)]/ t^2

PROGRAM
clc;
clear all;
close all;
t= 1:1:10
z= (sin(t.^2))/(t.^2)

RESULT
t=1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
z = -0.0052