Slobodan Pajic (WPI) MATLAB notes 1

What is MATLAB?
MATLAB (MATrix LABoratory) is an interactive program for scientific and engineering numeric calculation
and programming language

Getting help from within MATLAB

>> help <functionname> Shows help document for a give function
>> doc <functionname>

>> lookfor <keyword> Searches all the help documents for a given keyword

Variables
• Real/complex scalars
• Real/complex vectors
• Real/complex matrices
• Symbolic variables
Note: Variable Names are case sensitive

Math Functions

MATLAB does not perform trigonometric operations using units of degrees

Trigonometric function Description

cos(x)/acos(x) Cosine/Inverse cosine
sin(x)/asin(x) Sine/Inverse sine
tan(x)/atan(x) Tangent/Inverse tangent
cot(x)/acot(x) Cotangent/Inverse cotangent
cosh(x)/acosh(x) Hyperbolic cosine/Inverse hyperbolic cosine
sinh(x)/asinh(x) Hyperbolic sine/Inverse hyperbolic sine
tanh(x)/atanh(x) Hyperbolic tangent/Inverse hyperbolic tangent
coth(x)/acoth(x) Hyperbolic cotangent/Inverse hyperbolic cotangent

Exponential function Description

^ Power
exp Exponential
log Natural logarithm (ln)
log10 Base 10 logarithm
sqrt Square root
.* ./ .^ Element-by element operators
Slobodan Pajic (WPI) MATLAB notes 2

Note that for multiplying, dividing and exponentiating on a term-by-tem basis, you must precede
the operator with a period.

Complex Numbers

All the MATLAB arithmetic operations are available for complex operations. The imaginary unit
is predefined for two variables i = j = − 1 .

z=a+jb=|z|ejθ

Let’s define complex number: z = 1- j2 in MATLAB

MATLAB EXAMPLE: – complex number

>> z=1-2i

z=

1.0000 - 2.0000i

Calculating magnitude and phase angle

z = a + jb = z e jθ

z = Re{z} + Im{z} = a 2 + b 2
2 2

In our case: z = 12 + 2 2 = 5 = 2.236

Slobodan Pajic (WPI) MATLAB notes 3

⎛ Im{z} ⎞ ⎛b⎞
θ = tan −1 ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ = tan −1 ⎜ ⎟
⎝ Re{z} ⎠ ⎝a⎠

⎛2⎞
In our case: θ = tan −1 ⎜ ⎟ = 1.10715
⎝1⎠

MATLAB EXAMPLE: – complex number

>>mag_z=abs(z) % Magnitude (absolute value) of complex number

mag_z =

2.2361

>> theta=angle(z) % angle(Z) returns the phase angle in radians

theta =

-1.1071

>> theta_deg=theta*180/pi % Phase angle in degrees

theta_deg =

-63.4349

Complex conjugate

MATLAB EXAMPLE: complex conjugate

>> z_conj=conj(1-2i) % conj(z) returns the complex conjugate of the z

z_conj =

1.0000 + 2.0000i

Complex number multiplication and division

MATLAB EXAMPLE – complex number multiplication/division

>> x=2-3i;
>> y=3-2i;
>> z=x*y

z=
Slobodan Pajic (WPI) MATLAB notes 4

0 -13.0000i

>> q=x/y

q=

0.9231 - 0.3846i

Useful complex number commands

real(Z) returns the real part of the elements of the complex array Z.
imag(Z) returns the imaginary part of the elements of array Z.

z*z=z^2

Vector operations

• In MATLAB, elements enclosed by brackets and separated by semicolons generate a

column vector.
• Transpose of a column vector results in a row vector, and vice versa. Transpose operation
in MATLAB is denoted by (‘)

MATLAB EXAMPLE – vector transpose operation

>> x=[1;2;3;4;5]

x=

1
2
3
4
5

>> y=x’

y=

1 2 3 4 5

There are many special utility matrices which are useful for matrix operations. A few examples
are:

eye(m,n) Generates an m×n identity matrix

zeros(m,n) Generates an m×n matrix of zeros
ones(m,n) Generates an m×n matrix of ones
Slobodan Pajic (WPI) MATLAB notes 5

diag(x) Produces a diagonal matrix with the elements of x on the diagonal

Ex. try x= [1 2 3 4] , diag(x)

For complete list and help on elementary matrices and matrix functions type help elmat and for
complete list on special matrices, type help specmat

MATLAB EXAMPLE – array merging

>> x=(1:5);

>> y=(6:9);

>> z=[x y]

z=

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Comas or spaces are used to separate elements in a specific row, and semicolons are used to
separate individual rows

MATLAB EXAMPLE size of the matrix

>> H=[1 2;3 4;5 6]

H=

1 2
3 4
5 6

>>size(H)

ans =

3 2

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

m=
3
n=
2

[m,n]=size(H) returns a size of each dimension of a matrix

m – number of rows
n – number of columns
Slobodan Pajic (WPI) MATLAB notes 6

r=size(H,1) returns the number of rows in H

c=size(H,2) returns the number of columns in H
n=length(H) returns max(size(H)) when H is a matrix, when H is a vector returns length of a
vector

Matrix multiplication
Recall: Multiplication of two matrices can be implemented if A∈ℜ(m×p) B∈ℜ(p×n) and
C=AB∈ℜ(m×n)

MATLAB EXAMPLE – matrix multiplication

>> A=[1 2 3;4 5 6]

A=

1 2 3
4 5 6

>> B=[1 2;3 4;5 6]

B=

1 2
3 4
5 6

>> C=A*B

C=

22 28
49 64

A(:,j)is the j-th column of A

A(i,:)is the i-th row of A
Slobodan Pajic (WPI) MATLAB notes 7

Solving system of equations

The most common situation involves square system of linear equations

− 4 x1 + 3x 2 − 6 x3 = 1
2 x1 − 8 x 2 − 3x3 = 2
− 2 x1 − x 2 − 5 x3 = 3

Consider following system of equations: Ax = b

Where:

⎛ − 4 3 − 6⎞ ⎛1⎞
⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟
A = ⎜ 2 − 8 − 3⎟ b = ⎜ 2⎟
⎜ − 2 −1 − 5⎟ ⎜ 3⎟
⎝ ⎠ ⎝ ⎠

Solution process in MATLAB will look like

MATLAB EXAMPLE
>> A=[-4 3 -6;2 -8 -3;-2 -1 -5]

>> b=[1;2;3];

>> x=A\b

x=

-11.5000
-5.0000
5.0000

Compute the Integral

b
q = ∫ f ( x)dx
a

MATLAB: q = quad(fun,a,b)

Example:
0.01
q= ∫ 60 ⋅ cos(100t ) * sin (50t )dt
0
Slobodan Pajic (WPI) MATLAB notes 8

MATLAB EXAMPLE Compute the Integral

>> q=quad('(60*cos(100*t)).*sin(50*t)',0,0.01)

q=

0.1124

Polynomials
Let assume following polynomials

u = s 3 − 5s 2 + 8 s − 4
v = s 2 − 3s + 2

Polynomial multiplication

x = u v = s 5 − 8s 4 + 25s 3 − 38s 2 + 28s − 8

In MATLAB they can be defined as follows

u=[1 -5 8 -4]
v=[1 -3 2]

MATLAB EXAMPLE Polynomial multiplication/division

>> u=[1 -5 8 -4];

>> v=[1 -3 2];

>> x=conv(u,v) % polynomial multiplication

x=

1 -8 25 -38 28 -8

>> [q r]=deconv(u,v) % polynomial division (q- quotient; r- reminder)

q=

1 -2

r=

0 0 0 0
Slobodan Pajic (WPI) MATLAB notes 9

Finding the roots of the polynomial

u = s 3 − 5s 2 + 8s − 4 = (s − 2) (s − 1)
2

Given the roots of the polynomial it is also possible to construct the associated polynomial

MATLAB EXAMPLE roots of the polynomial

>> u=[1 -5 8 -4];

>> a=roots(u) % Finding the roots of the polynomial

a=

2.0000
2.0000
1.0000

>> g = [1 2 3]
>> t = poly(g) % polynomial construction from its roots

t=

1 -6 11 -6

Another common operation is to find the partial fraction expansion of a rational polynomial

[r,p,k]=residue(num,den)

num r( 1 ) r( 2 ) r( n )
= + +L+ +k
den s − p( 1 ) s − p( 2 ) s − p( n )

example: find partial fraction expansion of the following rational polynomial

2s 2 + 13s + 1
s 3 + 7 s 2 + 6s

MATLAB EXAMPLE partial fraction expansion

>> num = [2 13 1];

>> den = [1 7 6 0];

Slobodan Pajic (WPI) MATLAB notes 10

>> [r,p,k]=residue(num,den) % Finding partial fraction expansion

r=

-0.1667
2.0000
0.1667

p=

-6
-1
0

k=

[]

Therefore

2s 2 + 13s + 1 − 0.1667 2 0.1667

= + +
s + 7 s + 6s
3 2
s+6 s +1 s

Save session to file

>> diary(‘filename’)writes a copy of all subsequent keyboard input and
the resulting output to the named file in the current
MATLAB directory

>> diary off suspends the diary

>> diary on resumes diary mode using the current filename

Saving variables

• Save all or some of the variables you have defined during a MATLAB session, and then
load them in a later MATLAB session (MAT-files).

MATLAB EXAMPLE: saving/loading variables

>> save my_filename % saves all variables from workspace into my_filename.MAT

>> save some_of_my_variables var_a var_b % saves var_a and var_b

>> load my_filename

Slobodan Pajic (WPI) MATLAB notes 11

>> load some_of_my_variables

Symbolic Computation in MATLAB

Bilinear transformation (mapping from the s-plane to the z-plane)

2 1 − z −1
s=
T 1 + z −1

s
H( s ) = Find H(z) ?
s +ω

MATLAB EXAMPLE
>> clear
>> syms z w;
>> s = 2*(1-z^(-1))/(1+z^(-1));
>> H = s/(s+w);
>> pretty(collect(simplify(H),z))

Result

z −1
H ( z) = 2
(2 + ω ) z − 2 + ω

Programming in MATLAB

M-Files
• Sets of MATLAB commands can be executed via scripts
• Scripts are written into files with extensions *.m
Ex. filename.m
• These scripts are executed in MATLAB by entering the name of .m file
>> filename

Functions
• Commonly performed operations can be written into functions
• In a file named functionname.m
Slobodan Pajic (WPI) MATLAB notes 12

Function [output]=functionname(input)
Command 1
Command 2

File → New → M-file

MATLAB EXAMPLE: M file

clear
t = -4*pi:pi/10:4*pi;
y1 = sin(t);
y2 = cos(t);

figure(1)
plot(t,y1,t,y2)
title('Plot of sin(\theta) and cos(\theta)')
xlabel('-4\pi \leq \theta \leq 4\pi'), ylabel('function')
legend('y_{1}=sin(\theta)','y_{2}=cos(\theta)')
text(-3.5,0.6,' \leftarrow '), text(-2,0.6,'y_{1}'),
text(-8.5,0.6,' \rightarrow '), text(-9,0.6,'y_{2}')

figure(2)
subplot(2,1,1), plot(t,y1,'-.'), title('y_{1}=sin(\theta)')
subplot(2,1,2), plot(t,y2,'m--'), title('y_{2}=cos(\theta)')

figure(3)
q=sin(t)./t;
plot(t,q), grid on
title('Plot of sin(\theta)/\theta')
xlabel('-4\pi \leq \theta \leq 4\pi'), ylabel('function')

Figure No. 1
Slobodan Pajic (WPI) MATLAB notes 13

Plot of sin(θ) and cos(θ)

1
y 1=sin(θ)
y 2=cos(θ)
0.8

0.6 y 2→ ← y1

0.4

0.2
function

-0.2

-0.4

-0.6

-0.8

-1
-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15
-4π ≤ θ ≤ 4π

Figure No. 2

y 1=sin(θ)
1

0.5

-0.5

-1
-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15

y2=cos(θ)
1

0.5

-0.5

-1
-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15

Figure No. 3
Slobodan Pajic (WPI) MATLAB notes 14

Plot of sin(θ)/θ
1

0.8

0.6

0.4
function

0.2

-0.2

-0.4
-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15
-4π ≤ θ ≤ 4π

References:
MathWorks: http://www.mathworks.com

Tutorial: http://www.mathworks.com/academia/student_center/tutorials/launchpad.html

“Mastering MATLAB 6” Duane Hanselman & Bruce Littlefield, Prentice Hall, 2001