9/7/2015

Lecture1

Lecture1
GettingMatlabtorun
Onyourownlaptop...you'reonyourown...
OnAthenatype(withouttheathena%prompt)

athena%addmatlab
athena%matlab

Ittakesabout3060secstostartup...andyou'llgetascreen
showing:
<MATLAB>
Copyright19842006TheMathWorks,Inc.
Version7.2.0.283(R2006a)
January27,2006

Togetstarted,typeoneofthese:helpwin,helpdesk,demo,
helphelp,whatsnew,info
ForAthenaspecificinformation,type:helpathena
Forproductinformation,visitwww.mathworks.com

TostarttheMatlabDesktop,type:desktop

>>desktop

Alternatively,youcantype
athena%addmatlab
athena%matlabdesktop

Programming
Themostawfultruthaboutcomputersisthattheyarealldumb.Everythingmustbeexplicitly
told.Spellingoutthemostminorandobviousdetail.Otherwise,youwilleithergetasyntax
error(computernotunderstandingwhatyouaresaying)oraprogrammingerror(thecomputer
understandingwhatyouaresayingbutitisdifferentfromwhatyoumean).

Therearemanyprograminglanguages.WhyuseMatlab?Asafirstprogramminglanguage,it
isgreat,ithassimplesyntax,itiseasytogetstartedwithandeasytodographics.Whileother
programminglanguagesarefasterrunningtheyareslowertolearnandtouse.
Inaddition,Matlab,asaninterpretedlanguage,isinteractive,whichallowsformore
exploratoryprogramming.Oncetheexplorationisdone,oneshouldconsiderrewritingthe
programinadifferentlanguageifintensiveuseisrequired.

http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/resources/farjoun/Lecture1.html

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Lecture1

TheCommandPrompt
IntheinteractiveterminalofMatlabyouwillseethecommandprompt(>>).ThisisMatlab's
wayoftellingyouthatitisreadytoreceiveinstructionsfromyou.TocommandMatlab,type
yourrequestandhitEnter.Matlabthenevaluatesyourcommandanddisplaystheoutput(if
any).

Togethelpusethehelp,andlookforcommands.helpshouldbeusedtofindout
informationaboutaknowncommand,e.g.helpzeros.
lookforcanbeusedtofindacommandtoperformataske.g.lookforroots.
Ifyoudonotgetthecommandpromptforsomereason,youmayhavetypedasyntaxerror,or
haveputMatlabintoaninfiniteloop.Don'tpanic!pressCtrlCandyou'llgetthepromptback.

Exercises
Learnaboutthecommandsones,zeros,sum,anddiag.
Learnaboutmagicandverifywhatyoulearnedwithsum.

SimpleExpressions
Matlab'smostbasicbuildingblocksareexpressions:1,1+1,4*3,4^2,5/6.
ButMatlab'srealstrengthisinhandlingmatricesandvectors.Toenteravectorweuse
brackets.Trythefollowingexamplestoseewhathappens:[12],[1:10],[1,23
456,789101112]
Noticethatthecolonisusedtocreateanarithmeticsequence.Wecanalsocreateasequence
withastepsizedifferentfrom1:[4:0.1:5],[5:2:5].
Totransposeamatrix(orvector)usetheapostrophe('):
>>[1:10]'

Exercises
TrytosolvethesewithasingleMatlabcommand:
Createthevectorconsistingofthewholeevennumbersbetween15and27.
Createthevectorconsistingofthewholeoddnumbersbetween15and27.
Createthevectorofthepreviousquestionindecreasingorder.

Variables
AskingMatlabtocalculatethingsforusisgreat,butmostofthetimesacalculationisonly
onestepoutofmanyandtheresultofacalculationneedtobesavedforthe(verynear)future.
Todothisweuse'variables',whicharesimplyawaytonameabitofMatlabdata.Thisisbest
explainedbyexample:
>>a=1
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/resources/farjoun/Lecture1.html

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putsthevalue1intoavariablecalleda.typing

>>a
resultsbackinthevalue1.
Wecanalsoassignacalculationintoavariable:
>>b=1+1

andnowbwillcontaintheanswer,2.
Variablenamescan(andshould)belongerthanoneletter.Awordoracoupleofwordsstrung
togethertendstoworkthebest.

Referencingmatrixelements
Wecanaccesstheelementsofamatrixinthefollowingmanner:

>>a=[14356]
>>a(4)

>>b=[1234]
>>b(2,2)

Wherethenumbersintheparenthesisare(row,column).

http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/resources/farjoun/Lecture1.html

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