An interactive introduction to MATLAB

1.3basic calculations 5

Listing 1.3: Trigonometry
1 >> sin(2*pi)+exp(−3/2)
2 ans =
3 0.
The arguments to
trigonometric functions
should be given in
radians.

Comments:

• MATLABhas pre-defined constants e. g.πmay be typed aspi.


• You must explicitly type all arithmetic operations e. g.sin(2*pi)not
  sin(2pi).


• sin(x)andexp(x)correspond tosin(x)andexrespectively.

Listing 1.4: Complex numbers
1 >> 5+5j
2 ans =
3 5.0000 + 5.0000i

Comments:

• Complex numbers can be entered using the basic imaginary unitiorj.

Listing 1.5: More trigonometry
1 >> atan(5/5)
2 ans =
3 0.

5 >> 10*log10(0.5)
6 ans =
7 −3.

Comments:

• atan(x)andlog10(x)correspond totan−^1 (x)andlog 10 (x)respect-
  ively.

Built-in functions

There are many other built-inMATLABfunctions for performing basic cal-

culations. These can be searched from the Help Browser which is opened by

clicking on its icon (like the icon used to indicate this Hints and Tips section)

in theMATLABdesktop toolbar.