Because learning changes everything.

Applied Numerical Methods

with MATLAB®
for Engineers and Scientists
5th Edition

Steven C. Chapra

PowerPoints organized by Dr. Michael R. Gustafson II, Duke University and

Prof. Steve Chapra, Tufts University

© McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.
 Part 1
Chapter 2
MATLAB Fundamentals

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 Chapter Objectives
Learning how real and complex numbers are
assigned to variables.
Learning how vectors and matrices are assigned
values using simple assignment, the color operator,
and the linspace and logspace functions.
Understanding the priority rules for constructing
mathematical expressions.
Gaining a general understanding of built-in
functions and how you can learn more about them
with MATLAB’s Help facilities.
Learning how to use vectors to create a simple line
plot based on an equation.
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 From Prof. Bishay’s Lecture Notes

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 From Prof. Bishay’s Lecture Notes

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 From Prof. Bishay’s Lecture Notes

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 The MATLAB Environment

MATLAB uses three primary windows-

• Command window - used to enter commands and
data.
• Graphics window(s) - used to display plots and
graphics.
• Edit window - used to create and edit M-files
(programs).
Depending on your computer platform and
the version of MATLAB used, these windows
may have different looks and feels.
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 Calculator Mode

The MATLAB command widow can be used

as a calculator where you can type in
commands line by line. Whenever a
calculation is performed, MATLAB will
assign the result to the built-in variable ans
Example:
>> 55 minus 16
ans =
39
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 MATLAB Variables
While using the ans variable may be useful for
performing quick calculations, its transient nature makes
it less useful for programming.
MATLAB allows you to assign values to variable names.
This results in the storage of values to memory locations
corresponding to the variable name.
MATLAB can store individual values as well as arrays; it
can store numerical data and text (which is actually stored
numerically as well).
MATLAB does not require that you pre-initialize a
variable; if it does not exist, MATLAB will create it for you.

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 Scalars, 1

To assign a single value to a variable, simply

type the variable name, the = sign, and the
value:
>> a = 4
a =
4
Note that variable names must start with a
letter, though they can contain letters,
numbers, and the underscore (_) symbol
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 Scalars, 2

You can tell MATLAB not to report the result

of a calculation by appending the semi-colon
(;) to the end of a line. The calculation is still
performed.
You can ask MATLAB to report the value
stored in a variable by typing its name:
>> a
a =
4
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 Scalars, 3
You can use the complex variable i (or j) to
represent the unit imaginary number.
You can tell MATLAB to report the values back with
several different formats using the format command.
Note that the values are still stored the same way,
they are just displayed on the screen differently.
Some examples are:
• short - scaled fixed-point format with 5 digits.
• long - scaled fixed-point format with 15 digits for double
and 7 digits for single.
• short eng - engineering format with at least 5 digits
and a power that is a multiple of 3 (useful for SI prefixes).
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 Format Examples
>> format short; pi
ans =
3.1416
>> format long; pi
ans =
3.14159265358979
>> format short eng; pi
ans =
3.1416e+000
>> pi*10000
ans =
31.4159e+003
Note - the format remains the same unless another format
command is issued.
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 Arrays, Vectors, and Matrices

MATLAB can automatically handle

rectangular arrays of data - one-dimensional
arrays are called vectors and two-
dimensional arrays are called matrices.
Arrays are set off using square brackets [
and ] in MATLAB
Entries within a row are separated by spaces
or commas
Rows are separated by semicolons
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 Array Examples
>> a = [1 2 3 4 5 ]
a =
1 2 3 4 5
>> b = [2;4;6;8;10]
b =
2
4
6
8
10
Note 1 - MATLAB does not display the brackets
Note 2 - if you are using a monospaced font, such as
Courier, the displayed values should line up properly
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 Matrices

A 2-D array, or matrix, of data is entered row

by row, with spaces (or commas) separating
entries within the row and semicolons
separating the rows:
>> A = [1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9]
A =
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
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 Useful Array Commands
The transpose operator (apostrophe) can be used to
flip an array over its own diagonal. For example, if
b is a row vector, b’ is a column vector. If b is
complex b’ contains the complex conjugate of b.
The command window will allow you to separate
rows by hitting the Enter key - script files and
functions will allow you to put rows on new lines as
well.
The who command will report back used variable
names; whos will also give you the size, memory,
and data types for the arrays.
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 Accessing Array Entries, 1
Individual entries within an array can be both read
and set using either the index of the location in the
array or the row and column.
The index value starts with 1 for the entry in the
top left corner of an array and increases down a
column - the following shows the indices for a 4
row, 3 column matrix:

1 5 9
2 6 10
3 7 11
4 8 12
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 Accessing Array Entries, 2
Assuming some matrix C:
C =
2 4 9
3 3 16
3 0 8
10 13 17
C(2) would report 3
C(4) would report 10
C(13) would report an error!
Entries can also be access using the row and column:
C(2,1) would report 3
C(3,2) would report 0
C(5,1) would report an error!
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 Array Creation - Built In

There are several built-in functions to create

arrays:
• zeros(r,c) will create an r row by c column
matrix of zeros.
• zeros(n) will create an n by n matrix of zeros.
• ones(r,c) will create an r row by c column
matrix of ones.
• ones(n) will create an n by n matrix one ones.
help elmat has, among other things, a list
of the elementary matrices
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 Array Creation - Colon Operator
The colon operator : is useful in several contexts. It
can be used to create a linearly spaced array of points
using the notation start:diffval:limit
where start is the first value in the array, diffval
is the difference between successive values in the
array, and limit is the boundary for the last value
(though not necessarily the last value).
>>1:0.6:3
ans =
1.0000 1.6000 2.2000 2.8000

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 Colon Operator - Notes
If diffval is omitted, the default value is 1:
>>3:6
ans =
3 4 5 6
To create a decreasing series, diffval must be negative:
>> 5:-1.2:2
ans =
5.0000 3.8000 2.6000
If start+diffval>limit for an increasing series or
start+diffval<limit for a decreasing series, an empty matrix
is returned:
>>5:2
ans =
Empty matrix: 1-by-0
To create a column, transpose the output of the colon operator, not the
limit value; that is, (3:6)′ not 3:6′
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 Array Creation - linspace
To create a row vector with a specific number of linearly
spaced points between two numbers, use the linspace
command.
linspace(x1, x2, n) will create a linearly spaced
array of n points between x1 and x2
>>linspace(0, 1, 6)
ans =
0 0.2000 0.4000 0.6000 0.8000 1.0000
If n is omitted, 100 points are created.
To generate a column, transpose the output of the
linspace command.

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 Array Creation - logspace

To create a row vector with a specific number of logarithmically

spaced points between two numbers, use the logspace
command.
logspace(x1, x2, n) will create a logarithmically
spaced array of n points between 10x1 and 10x2
>>logspace(-1, 2, 4)
ans =
0.1000 1.0000 10.0000 100.0000
If n is omitted, 100 points are created.
To generate a column, transpose the output of the
logspace command.

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 Character Strings & Ellipsis
Alphanumeric constants are enclosed by apostrophes (')
>> f = 'Miles ';
>> s = 'Davis'
Concatenation: pasting together of strings
>> x = [f s]
x =
Miles Davis
Ellipsis (...): Used to continue long lines
>> a = [1 2 3 4 5 ...
6 7 8]
a =
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
You cannot use an ellipsis within single quotes to continue a string. But you can
piece together shorter strings with ellipsis
>> quote = ['Any fool can make a rule,' ...
' and any fool will mind it']
quote =
Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it
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 Some Useful Character Functions
Function Description
n = length(s) Number of characters, n, in a string, s.
b = strcmp(s1,s2) Compares two strings, s1 and s2; if equal
returns true (b = 1). If not equal , returns
false (b = 0).
n = str2num(s) Converts a string, s, to a number, n.
s = num2str(n) Converts a number, n, to a string, s.
s2 = strrep(s1,c1,c2) Replaces characters in a string with
different characters
i = strfind(s1,s2) Returns the starting indices of any
occurrences of the string s2 in the string s1
S = upper(s) Converts a string to upper case
s = lower(S) Converts a string to lower case
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 Mathematical Operations
Mathematical operations in MATLAB can be performed on both
scalars and arrays.
The common operators, in order of priority, are:
∧ Exponentiation 4∧2=8
− Negation (unary operation) −8 = −8
∗ Multiplication and Division 2 ∗ pi = 6.2832
∕ pi/4 = 0.7854
∖ Left Division 6\2 = 0.3333
+ Addition and Subtraction 3+5=8
− 3 − 5 = −2

Within each precedence level, operators are evaluated from left

to right
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 Order of Operations
The order of operations is set first by parentheses, then
by the default order given above, then left-to-right:
• y = −4 ^ 2 gives y = −16
since the exponentiation happens first due to its
higher default priority, but
• y = (−4) ^ 2 gives y = 16
since the negation operation on the 4 takes place first
because of the parentheses
• y = 8/2*6 gives y = 24
since the left-to-right rule implements the division
first to give 4 and then the multiplication to give 4*6
to yield 24

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 Complex Numbers
All the operations above can be used with complex
quantities (that is, values containing an imaginary part
entered using i or j and displayed using i)
>> x = 2+i*4; (or 2+4i, or 2+j*4, or 2+4j)
>> y = 16;
>> 3 * x
ans =
6.0000 +12.0000i
>> x+y
ans =
18.0000 + 4.0000i
>> x'
ans =
2.0000 - 4.0000i

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 Vector-Matrix Calculations
MATLAB can also perform operations on vectors and matrices.
The * operator for matrices is defined as the outer product or
what is commonly called “matrix multiplication.”
• The number of columns of the first matrix must match the number of
rows in the second matrix.
• The size of the result will have as many rows as the first matrix and as
many columns as the second matrix.
• The exception to this is multiplication by a 1 by 1 matrix, which is
actually an array operation.
The ^ operator for matrices results in the matrix being matrix-
multiplied by itself a specified number of times.
• Note - in this case, the matrix must be square!

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 Element-by-Element Calculations
At times, you will want to carry out calculations item by item
in a matrix or vector. The MATLAB manual calls these array
operations. They are also often referred to as element-by-
element operations.
MATLAB defines .* and ./ (note the dots) as the array
multiplication and array division operators.
• For array operations, both matrices must be the same size or one of
the matrices must be 1 by 1 (that is, a scalar).
Array exponentiation (raising each element to a
corresponding power in another matrix) is performed with .^
• Again, for array operations, both matrices must be the same size or
one of the matrices must be 1 by 1.

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 Built-In Functions
There are several built-in functions you can use to create
and manipulate data.
The built-in help function can give you information about
both what exists and how those functions are used:
• help elmat will list the elementary matrix creation and
manipulation functions, including functions to get information about
matrices.
• help elfun will list the elementary math functions, including trig,
exponential, complex, rounding, and remainder functions.

The built-in lookfor command will search help files for

occurrences of text and can be useful if you know a
function’s purpose but not its name
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 Graphics
MATLAB has a powerful suite of built-in graphics
functions.

Two of the primary functions are plot (for plotting

2-D data) and plot3 (for plotting 3-D data).

In addition to the plotting commands, MATLAB

allows you to label and annotate your graphs using
the title, xlabel, ylabel, and legend
commands.

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 Plotting Example
t = [0:2:20]’;
g = 9.81; m = 68.1; cd = 0.25;
v = sqrt(g*m/cd) * tanh(sqrt(g*cd/m)*t);
plot(t, v)

Access the text alternative for slide images.

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 Plotting Annotation Example
title('Plot of v versus t')
xlabel('Values of t')
ylabel('Values of v')
grid

Access the text alternative for slide images.

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 Plotting Options
When plotting data, MATLAB can use several
different colors, point styles, and line styles. These
are specified at the end of the plot command
using plot specifiers as found in Table (next slide).
The default case for a single data set is to create a
blue line with no points. If a line style is specified
with no point style, no point will be drawn at the
individual points; similarly, if a point style is
specified with no line style, no line will be drawn.
Examples of plot specifiers:
• ‘ro:’ - red dotted line with circles at the points.
• ‘gd’ - green diamonds at the points with no line.
• ‘m--’ - magenta dashed line with no point symbols.

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 Plotting Options

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 Other Plotting Commands
hold on and hold off
• hold on tells MATLAB to keep the current data plotted
and add the results of any further plot commands to the
graph. This continues until the hold off command,
which tells MATLAB to clear the graph and start over if
another plotting command is given. hold on should be
used after the first plot in a series is made.
subplot(m, n, p)
• subplot splits the figure window into an mn array of
small axes and makes the pth one active. Note - the first
subplot is at the top left, then the numbering continues
across the row. This is different from how elements are
numbered within a matrix!
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