BME1901 – Introductory Computer Sciences

Laboratory Handout – 1
OBJECTIVES
Learn about,
 Vectors  Built-in functions [ones(), zeros(),
 Matrices length(), size(), sin(), cos()]
 Indices of Vectors/Matrices  Graphing [plot()] function
 Vector/Matrix manipulation
TOOLS
All MATLAB variables are multidimensional arrays, no matter what type of data. To create a
vector with four elements in a single row, separate the elements with either a comma (,) or a space.
>> a = [1 2 3 4] >> a = [1, 2, 3, 4]

a = a =

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

A matrix is a two-dimensional array often used for linear algebra. To create a matrix that has
multiple rows, separate the rows with semicolons (;).
>> a = [1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9]

a =

1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

Another way to create a matrix is to use a function, such as ones(), zeros(). For example, create a
5-by-1 column vector of zeros.
>> z = zeros(5,1) >> o = ones(2,4)

z = o =

0 1 1 1 1
0 1 1 1 1
0
0
0

MATLAB allows you to process all of the values in a matrix using a single arithmetic operator or
function. For example, adding a value to each element of a matrix.
>> a = [1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9] >> a + 10 >> a * 10

a = ans = ans =

1 2 3 11 12 13 10 20 30
4 5 6 14 15 16 40 50 60
7 8 9 17 18 19 70 80 90

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 BME1901 – Introductory Computer Sciences
Laboratory Handout – 1
Every variable in MATLAB is an array that can hold many numbers. When you want to access
selected elements of an array, use indexing. For example, consider the 4-by-4 magic() square A.
The way to refer to a particular element in an array is to specify row (i) and column (j) subscripts
[A(i,j)].
>> A = magic(4) >> A(4,2)

A = ans = 14

16 2 3 13
5 11 10 8
9 7 6 12
4 14 15 1

When you want to manipulate or to change the value of an element in an array, you may again use
indexing, however this time on the left hand side of an assignment statement.
>> A(1,2) = 17

A =

16 17 3 13
5 11 10 8
9 7 6 12
4 14 15 1

To refer to multiple elements of an array, use the colon (:) operator, which allows you to specify a
range of the form start:end. The colon (:) alone, without start or end values, specifies all of the
elements in that dimension.
>> A(1:3,1) >> A(3,:)

ans = ans =

16 9 7 6 12
5
9

The colon (:) operator also allows you to create an equally spaced vector of values using the more
general form start:step:end. If you omit the middle step, as in start:end, MATLAB uses the
default step value of 1.
>> B = 0:10:100

B =

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
>> C = 0:10

B =

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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 BME1901 – Introductory Computer Sciences
Laboratory Handout – 1
MATLAB provides a large number of functions that perform computational tasks. Functions are
equivalent to subroutines or methods in other programming languages. Functions has two
important parts, first is the function name and the second one is its input arguments. To call a
function write the function’s name and enclose its input arguments in parentheses after it.
L = length(X) returns the length of the array dimension in X. For vectors, the length is simply the
number of elements. The length of an empty array is zero.
>> v = 5:10

v =

5 6 7 8 9 10

>> L = length(v)

L = 6

[m,n] = size(X) returns a row vector whose elements contain the length of the corresponding
dimension of a matrix.
>> B = ones(3,5)

B =

1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1

>> [m,n] = size (B)

m = 3

n = 5

Y = sin(X) or Y = cos(X) returns the sine of the elements of X in radians. The sin and cos functions
operates element-wise on arrays.
>> X = 0:0.5:2 >> X = 0:0.5:2

X = X =

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0 0.5 1 1.5 2

>> Y = sin(X) >> Y = cos(X)

Y = Y =

0 0.4794 0.8415 0.9975 0.9093 1 0.8776 0.5403 0.0707 -0.4161

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 BME1901 – Introductory Computer Sciences
Laboratory Handout – 1
plot(X,Y) creates a 2-D line plot of the data in Y versus the corresponding values in X.
Example: Create x as a vector of linearly spaced values between 0 and 2π. Use an increment of
π/100 between the values. Create y as sine values of x. Create a line plot of the data.
>> x = 0:pi/100:2*pi;
>> y = sin(x);
>> plot(x,y)
>> title('Sine Plot')
>> xlabel('Angle')
>> ylabel('Magnitude')

Example: Create x as a vector of linearly spaced values between -2π and 2π. Use an increment of
π/100 between the values. Create y1 and y2 as sine and cosine values of x. Create a line plot of
both sets of data.
>> x = -2*pi:pi/100:2*pi; >> x = -2*pi:pi/100:2*pi;
>> y1 = sin(x); >> y1 = sin(x);
>> y2 = cos(x); >> y2 = cos(x);
>> plot(x,y1,x,y2) >> plot(x,y1)
>> title('Sine & Cosine Plot') >> hold on
>> xlabel('Angle') >> plot(x,y2)
>> ylabel('Magnitude') >> title('Sine & Cosine Plot')
>> legend('Sine','Cosine') >> xlabel('Angle')
>> ylabel('Magnitude')
>> legend('Sine','Cosine')

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 BME1901 – Introductory Computer Sciences
Laboratory Handout – 1
PROBLEMS
1. First find the result of the following statements by hand. Then write them to command
window to check your results.
a. 1-6+2*5+8/2^3-3
b. (9/(3-2))^(1/2)*(6+4)

2. Create a 3x3 matrix using “A = magic(3)” in command window. Then do the following.
a. Take the first and second rows of matrix A and add them together to create vector
B.
b. Take the first and third column of the matrix A and multiply them element-wise to
create vector C (Hint: if you only use (*) you will encounter an error. Search help
section of MATLAB for “element-wise multiplication”).
c. Find matrix multiplications of B*C and C*B (additionally check the sizes of both
B and C matrices to notice that they are 1x3 and 3x1, respectively).

3. Create a time vector t from 0 to 10 seconds with 0.01 second steps. Create an acceleration
of a at 1.1334 m/s^2 and an initial velocity of v0 at 8.5487 m/s. Using the formula for
velocity 𝑣 = 𝑣0 + 𝑎 × 𝑡 calculate velocity v for all t. Plot the resulting velocity against
time. Then using disp() function show velocity values for each second (0, 1, 2, …, 10) on
command window.

4. Create a time vector t from 0 to 10 seconds with 0.1 second steps, then create a frequency
of f at 0.5 Hz. Create magnitudes of A and B at 2 and 5, respectively. Additionally, crate a
phase of p at 0.2π.
a. Write the statement to find signal y1 such that it is equal to “A sin(2π f t)”.
b. Write the statement to find signal y2 such that it is equal to “B sin(2π f t + p)”.
c. Plot the signals y1 and y2 on the same graph against time.
d. Name the graph title as “Problem 3 Sine Graph”.
e. Name the y axis label as “Magnitude”.
f. Name the x axis label as “Time”.
g. Create legend for both signals with names “Sine 1” and “Sine 2”.

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 BME1901 – Introductory Computer Sciences
Laboratory Handout – 1
CHALLENGE QUESTION
Full question will be given at the end of the laboratory class and you will have 15 minutes to solve
this question by your own. Students who are able to find the correct solution before time is out
will be rewarded with 1 points to their overall grade at the end of the semester.
Additional tools you will need for this question are as follows.
 imread()
 imshow()
 cameraman.tif (a built-in image file in MATLAB)
You may study these functions from help section of MATLAB previous to the class.