Polynomials in Matlab

Polynomials
• f(x) = anx n + an-1x n-1 + ... + a1x + a0
• n is the degree of the polynomial
• Examples:
f(x) = 2x 2 - 4x + 10 degree 2
f(x) = 6 degree 0

Polynomials in
Matlab
• Represented by a row vector in which the
elements are the coefficients.
• Must include all coefficients, even if 0
• Examples
8x + 5 p = [8 5]
6x 2 - 150 h = [6 0 -150]

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 Value of a
Polynomial
• Recall that we can compute the value of a
polynomial for any value of x directly.
• Ex: f(x) = 5x 3 + 6x 2 - 7x + 3

x = 2;
y = (5 * x ^ 3) + (6 * x ^ 2) - (7 * x) + 3
y=
53

Value of a
Polynomial
• Matlab can also compute the value of a
polynomial at point x using a function,
which is sometimes more convenient
• polyval (p, x)
– p is a vector with the coefficients of the
polynomial
– x is a number, variable or expression

Value of a
polynomial
• Ex: f(x) = 5x 3 + 6x 2 - 7x + 3

p = [5 6 -7 3];
x = 2;
y = polyval(p, x)
y=
53

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 Roots of a
Polynomial
• Recall that the roots of a polynomial are
the values of the argument for which the
polynomial is equal to zero
• Ex: f(x) = x2 - 2x -3
0 = x 2 - 2x -3
0 = (x + 1)(x - 3)
0=x+1 OR 0 = x - 3
x = -1 x=3

Roots of a
Polynomial
• Matlab can compute the roots of a function
• r = roots(p)
– p is a row vector with the coefficients of the
polynomial
– r is a column vector with the roots of the
polynomial

Roots of a
Polynomial
• Ex: f(x) = x2 - 2x -3

p = [1 -2 -3];
r = roots(p)
r=
3.0000
-1.0000

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 Polynomial
Coefficients
• Given the roots of a polynomial, the
polynomial itself can be calculated
• Ex: roots = -3, +2
x = -3 OR x = 2
0=x+3 0 = x -2
0 = (x + 3)(x - 2)
f(x) = x 2 + x - 6

Polynomial
Coefficients
• Given the roots of a polynomial, Matlab
can compute the coefficients
• p = poly(r)
– r is a row or column vector with the roots of
the polynomial
– p is a row vector with the coefficients

Polynomial
Coefficients
• Ex: roots = -3, +2

r = [-3 +2];
p = poly(r)
p=
1 1 -6
% f(x) = x 2 + x -6

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 Adding and Subtracting
Polynomials

• Polynomials can be added or subtracted

• Ex: f1(x) + f2(x)
f1(x) = 3x 6 + 15x 5 - 10x 3 - 3x 2 +15x - 40
f2(x) = 3x 3 - 2x - 6
3x + 15x - 7x -3x +13x - 46
6 5 3 2

Adding and Subtracting

Polynomials

• Can do this in Matlab by just adding or

subtracting the coefficient vectors
– Both vectors must be of the same size, so the
shorter vector must be padded with zeros

Adding and Subtracting

Polynomials
Ex:
f1(x) = 3x 6 + 15x 5 - 10x 3 - 3x 2 +15x - 40
f2(x) = 3x 3 - 2x - 6
p1 = [3 15 0 -10 -3 15 -40];
p2 = [0 0 0 3 0 -2 -6];
p = p1+p2
p=
3 15 0 -7 -3 13 -46
%f(x) = 3x 6 + 15x 5 -7x 3 -3x 2 +13x -46

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 Multiplying Polynomials

• Polynomials can be multiplied:

• Ex: (2x 2 + x -3) * (x + 1) =

2x 3 + x 2 - 3x
+ 2x 2 + x -3
2x 3 +3x 2 -2x -3

Multiplying Polynomials

• Matlab can also multiply polynomials

• c = conv(a, b)
– a and b are the vectors of the coefficients of
the functions being multiplied
– c is the vector of the coefficients of the
product

Multiplying Polynomials
• Ex: (2x 2 + x -3) * (x + 1)
a = [2 1 -3];
b = [1 1];
c = conv(a, b)
c=
2 3 -2 -3
% 2x 3 + 3x 2 -2x -3

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 Dividing Polynomials
• Recall that polynomials can also be
divided
x -10
x + 1 x 2 - 9x - 10
-x 2 - x
-10x -10
-10x -10
0

Dividing Polynomials
• Matlab can also divide polynomials
• [q,r] = deconv(u, v)
– u is the coefficient vector of the numerator
– v is the coefficient vector of the denominator
– q is the coefficient vector of the quotient
– r is the coefficient vector of the remainder

Dividing Polynomials
• Ex: (x 2 - 9x -10) ÷ (x + 1)
u = [1 -9 -10];
v = [1 1];
[q, r] = deconv(u, v)
q=
1 -10 % quotient is (x - 10)
r=
0 0 0 % remainder is 0

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 Example 1
• Write a program to calculate when an object
thrown straight up will hit the ground. The
equation is
s(t) = -½gt2 +v 0t + h0
s is the position at time t (a position of zero
means that the object has hit the ground)
g is the acceleration of gravity: 9.8m/s 2
v 0 is the initial velocity in m/s
h0is the initial height in meters (ground level is 0,
a positive height means that the object was
thrown from a raised platform)

Example 1
Prompt for and read in initial velocity
Prompt for and read in initial height
Find the roots of the equation
Solution is the positive root
Display solution

Example 1
v = input('Please enter initial velocity: ');
h = input('Please enter initial height: ');
x = [-4.9 v h];
y = roots(x);
if y(1) >= 0
fprintf('The object will hit the ground in %.2f seconds \n',
y(1))
else
fprintf('The object will hit the ground in %.2f seconds \n',
y(2))
end

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 Example 1
Please enter initial velocity: 19.6
Please enter initial height: 58.8
The object will hit the ground in 6.00
seconds

Derivatives of
Polynomials

• We can take the derivative of polynomials

f(x) = 3x 2 -2x + 4
dy = 6x - 2
dx

Derivatives of
Polynomials
• Matlab can also calculate the derivatives
of polynomials
• k = polyder(p)
p is the coefficient vector of the polynomial
k is the coefficient vector of the derivative

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 Derivatives of
Polynomials
• Ex: f(x) = 3x 2 - 2x + 4

p = [3 -2 4];
k = polyder(p)
k=
6 -2
% dy/dx = 6x - 2

Integrals of Polynomials

• ?6x 2 dx = 6 ?x 2 dx
= 6 * ? x3
= 2 x3

Integrals of
Polynomials
• Matlab can also calculate the integral of a
polynomial
g = polyint(h, k)
h is the coefficient vector of the polynomial
g is the coefficient vector of the integral
k is the constant of integration - assumed
to be 0 if not present

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 Integration of
Polynomials
• ?6x 2 dx
h = [6 0 0];
g = polyint(h)
g=
2 0 0 0
% g(x) = 2x 3

Polynomial Curve Fitting

• Curve fitting is fitting a function to a set of

data points
• That function can then be used for various
mathematical analyses
• Curve fitting can be tricky, as there are
many possible functions and coefficients

Curve Fitting
• Polynomial curve fitting uses the method
of least squares
– Determine the difference between each data
point and the point on the curve being fitted,
called the residual
– Minimize the sum of the squares of all of the
residuals to determine the best fit

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 Curve Fitting
• A best-fit curve may not pass through any
actual data points
• A high-order polynomial may pass through
all the points, but the line may deviate
from the trend of the data

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 Matlab Curve Fitting
• Matlab provides an excellent polynomial
curve fitting interface
• First, plot the data that you want to fit
t = [0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0];
w = [6.00 4.83 3.70 3.15 2.41 1.83 1.49 1.21 0.96 0.73
0.64];
plot(t, w)
• Choose Tools/Basic Fitting from the menu
on the top of the plot

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 Matlab Curve Fitting
• Choose a fit
– it will be displayed on the plot
– the numerical results will show the equation
and the coefficients
– the norm of residuals is a measure of the
quality of the fit. A smaller residual is a better
fit.
• Repeat until you find the curve with the
best fit

Linear Fit

Linear Fit

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 8th Degree Polynomial

8th Degree Polynomial

Example 2
• Find the parabola that best fits the data
points (-1, 10) (0, 6) (1, 2) (2, 1) (3, 0)
(4, 2) (5, 4) and (6, 7)
• The equation for a parabola is
f(x) = ax 2 + bx + a

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 Example 2
X = [-1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6];
Y= [10, 6, 2, 1, 0, 2, 4, 7];
plot (X, Y)

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 Other curves
• All previous examples use polynomial
curves. However, the best fit curve may
also be power, exponential, logarithmic or
reciprocal
• See your textbook for information on fitting
data to these types of curves

Interpolation
• Interpolation is estimating values between
data points
• Simplest way is to assume a line between
each pair of points
• Can also assume a quadratic or cubic
polynomial curve connects each pair of
points

Interpolation
• yi = interp1(x, y, xi, 'method')
interp1 - last character is one
x is vector with x points
y is a vector with y points
xi is the x coordinate of the point to be
interpolated
yi is the y coordinate of the point being
interpolated

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 Interpolation
• method is optional:
'nearest' - returns y value of the data point that
is nearest to the interpolated x point
'linear' - assume linear curve between each two
points (default)
'spline' - assumes a cubic curve between each
two points

Interpolation
• Example:
x = [0 1 2 3 4 5];
y = [1.0 -0.6 -1.4 3.2 -0.7 -6.4];
yi = interp1(x, y, 1.5, 'linear')
yi =
-1
yj = interp1(x, y, 1.5, 'spline')
yj =
-1.7817

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