MATLAB by rudra pratap

1.2 Does MATLAB Do Symbolic Calculations?
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and matrix operations. The LuilL-in functions are optimized for vector operations.
Consequently, vcctorized1 commands or codes run much faster in MATLAB.
1.2 Does MATLAB Do Symbolic Calculations?
(MATLAB vs. Mathematica or Maple)
If you are new to MATLAB, you are likely to ask this question. The first thing to
realize is that MATLAB is primarily a numerical cumputatiou package, although
with the Symbolic Math Toolbox (standard with the Student Edition of MATLAB,
see Chapter 8 for an introduction) it can do symbolic algebra. 2 Mathematica and
Maple are primarily symbolic algebra packages. Of course, they do numerical computations
too. In fact, if you know any of these packages really well, you can do
almost every calculation that MATLAB does using that software. So why learn
MATLAB? Well, MATLAB's ease of use is its best feature. Also, it has a shallow
learning curve (more learning with less effort) whereas the computer algebra systems
have a steep learning curve. Because MATLAB was primarily designed to do
numerical calculations and computer algebra systems were not, MATLAB is often
much faster at these calculations--often as fast as C or Fortran. There are other
packages, such as Xmath, that are also closer in aim and scope but seem to be
popular with people in some specialized application areas. The bottom line is, in
numerical computations, especially those that us vectors and matries, MATLAB
beats everything hand clown in terms of ease of use, availability of built-in functions,
ease of programming, and speed. The proof is in the phenomenal growth of
MATLAB users around the world in the la.'lt two decades. There arc more than 2000
universities and thousands of companies listed as registered users. MATLAB's popularity
today has forced such powerful packages as Mathematica and many others
to provide extensions for files in MATLAB's format!
1.3 Will MATLAB Run on My Computer?
The most likely answer is "yes , " because MATLAB supports almost every computational
platform. In addition to Windows, MATLAB is available for UNIX, Sun
Solaris, Linux, and Mac OS X operating systems. Older versions of MATLAB are
available for additional platforms such as Mac OS and Open VMS. To find out
more about product availability for your particular computer, see the MathWorks
website listed in Section 1.4.
1 Vectorization referB to a manner of computation in which an operation is performed simultamJuusly
on a list of numbers (a vcector) r11.thr than AtXjUCntially on each member of hi! liL Fur
example, let (} be a list of 100 numbers. Then y =sin( B) i "· vRctorized statement as opposed to
Yl = sin(lh),y2 = sin(B2), etc.
2Symbolic a.lgcbra meanG that computation is done in terms of symbols ur variaules ralhPr than
numbers. For example, if you type (x+y)-2 on your curnpuLPr and Lite cuml-'uler responds by
saying that the expression is equal to x2 + 2xy + y 2 , Ll1en your computer does symbolic algebra.
Software package that du tiymbulic algebra are also known as computer algebra systems.