21-11-2012, 11:43 AM
INTRODUCTION TO MATLAB FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS
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Introduction
The tutorials are independent of the rest of the document. The primarily objective is to help
you learn quickly the ¯rst steps. The emphasis here is \learning by doing". Therefore, the
best way to learn is by trying it yourself. Working through the examples will give you a feel
for the way that MATLAB operates. In this introduction we will describe how MATLAB
handles simple numerical expressions and mathematical formulas.
The name MATLAB stands for MATrix LABoratory. MATLAB was written originally
to provide easy access to matrix software developed by the LINPACK (linear system package)
and EISPACK (Eigen system package) projects.
MATLAB [1] is a high-performance language for technical computing. It integrates
computation, visualization, and programming environment. Furthermore, MATLAB is a
modern programming language environment: it has sophisticated data structures, contains
built-in editing and debugging tools, and supports object-oriented programming. These factors
make MATLAB an excellent tool for teaching and research.
MATLAB has many advantages compared to conventional computer languages (e.g.,
C, FORTRAN) for solving technical problems. MATLAB is an interactive system whose
basic data element is an array that does not require dimensioning. The software package
has been commercially available since 1984 and is now considered as a standard tool at most
universities and industries worldwide.
It has powerful built-in routines that enable a very wide variety of computations. It
also has easy to use graphics commands that make the visualization of results immediately
available. Speci¯c applications are collected in packages referred to as toolbox. There are
toolboxes for signal processing, symbolic computation, control theory, simulation, optimiza-
tion, and several other ¯elds of applied science and engineering.
Basic features
As we mentioned earlier, the following tutorial lessons are designed to get you started
quickly in MATLAB. The lessons are intended to make you familiar with the basics of
MATLAB. We urge you to complete the exercises given at the end of each lesson.
Starting MATLAB
After logging into your account, you can enter MATLAB by double-clicking on the MATLAB
shortcut icon (MATLAB 7.0.4) on your Windows desktop. When you start MATLAB, a
special window called the MATLAB desktop appears. The desktop is a window that contains
other windows.
Making corrections
To make corrections, we can, of course retype the expressions. But if the expression is
lengthy, we make more mistakes by typing a second time. A previously typed command
can be recalled with the up-arrow key ". When the command is displayed at the command
prompt, it can be modi¯ed if needed and executed.