An interactive introduction to MATLAB

6 basic concepts

Table 1: Arithmetic operations

command description

+ Addition

− Subtraction

* Multiplication

/ Division

^ Exponentiation

Exercise 1: Basic calculations

1. LaunchMATLABand explore the different areas of theMATLAB
   desktop.


2. Try the basic calculations given in Listings 1.1–1.5, and check you get
   the correct answers.


3. Arithmetic operations
   Compute the following:
   -^2
   5
   25 − 1 and compare with

(

1 − 215

)− 1

•

√ 5 − 1

(√ 5 + 1 )^2

[Answers: 1.0323, 1.0323, 0.1180]

4. Exponentials and logarithms
   Compute the following:
   
   
   • e^3
   
   
   • ln(e^3 )
   
   
   • log 10 (e^3 )
   
   
   • log 10 ( 105 )
     [Answers: 20.0855, 3, 1.3029, 5]
   
   
   
   


5. Trigonometric operations
   Compute the following:
   
   
   • sin(π 6 )
   
   
   • cos(π)
   
   
   • tan(π 2 )
   
   
   • sin^2 (π 6 ) +cos^2 (π 6 )
     [Answers: 0.5, -1, 1.6331E16, 1]
   
   
   
   

Exercise 1 Solutions

(http://www.eng.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/matlab/unit01/Ex1-

Solutions.shtml)