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Analytical Plotting with Symbolic Math Toolbox

Symbolic Math Toolbox™ provides analytical plotting of mathematical expressions without explicitly generating numerical data. These plots can be in 2-D or 3-D as lines, curves, contours, surfaces, or meshes.

These examples feature the following graphics functions that accept symbolic functions, expressions, and equations as inputs:

  • fplot

  • fimplicit

  • fcontour

  • fplot3

  • fsurf

  • fmesh

  • fimplicit3

Plot Explicit Functions y=f(x) Using fplot

Plot the function sin(exp(x)).

syms x
fplot(sin(exp(x)))

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type functionline.

Plot the trigonometric functions sin(x), cos(x), and tan(x) simultaneously.

fplot([sin(x),cos(x),tan(x)])

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 3 objects of type functionline.

Plot a Function Defined by y=f(x,a) for Various Values of a

Plot the function sin(exp(x/a)) for a=1,2, and 4.

syms x a
expr = sin(exp(x/a));
fplot(subs(expr,a,[1,2,4]))
legend show

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 3 objects of type functionline.

Plot the Derivative and Integral of a Function

Plot a function f(x)=x(1+x)+2, its derivative df(x)/dx, and its integral f(x)dx.

syms f(x)
f(x) = x*(1 + x) + 2
f(x) = xx+1+2
f_diff = diff(f(x),x)
f_diff = 2x+1
f_int = int(f(x),x)
f_int = 

x2x2+3x+126

fplot([f,f_diff,f_int])
legend({'$f(x)$','$df(x)/dx$','$\int f(x)dx$'},'Interpreter','latex','FontSize',12)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 3 objects of type functionline. These objects represent $f(x)$, $df(x)/dx$, $\int f(x)dx$.

Plot a Function y=g(x0,a) with a as the Horizontal Axis

Find the x0 that minimizes a function g(x,a) by solving the differential equation dg(x,a)/dx=0.

syms g(x,a);
assume(a>0);
g(x,a) = a*x*(a + x) + 2*sqrt(a)
g(x, a) = 2a+axa+x
x0 = solve(diff(g,x),x)
x0 = 

-a2

Plot the minimum value of g(x0,a) for a from 0 to 5.

fplot(g(x0,a),[0 5])
xlabel('a')
title('Minimum Value of $g(x_0,a)$ Depending on $a$','interpreter','latex')

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title Minimum Value of g leftParenthesis x indexOf 0 baseline , a rightParenthesis Depending on a, xlabel a contains an object of type functionline.

Plot an Implicit Function f(x,y)=c Using fimplicit

Plot circles defined by x2+y2=r2 with radius r as the integers from 1 to 10.

syms x y
r = 1:10;
fimplicit(x^2 + y^2 == r.^2,[-10 10])
axis square;

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 10 objects of type implicitfunctionline.

Plot Contours of a Function f(x,y) Using fcontour

Plot contours of the function f(x,y)=x3-4x-y2 for contour levels from –6 to 6.

syms x y f(x,y)
f(x,y) = x^3 - 4*x - y^2;
fcontour(f,[-3 3 -4 4],'LevelList',-6:6);
colorbar
title 'Contour of Some Elliptic Curves'

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title Contour of Some Elliptic Curves contains an object of type functioncontour.

Plot an Analytic Function and Its Approximation Using Spline Interpolant

Plot the analytic function f(x)=xexp(-x)sin(5x)-2.

syms f(x)
f(x) = x*exp(-x)*sin(5*x) -2;
fplot(f,[0,3])

Create a few data points from the analytic function.

xs = 0:1/3:3;
ys = double(subs(f,xs));

Plot the data points and the spline interpolant that approximates the analytic function.

hold on
plot(xs,ys,'*k','DisplayName','Data Points')
fplot(@(x) spline(xs,ys,x),[0 3],'DisplayName','Spline interpolant')
grid on
legend show
hold off

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 3 objects of type functionline, line. One or more of the lines displays its values using only markers These objects represent Data Points, Spline interpolant.

Plot Taylor Approximations of a Function

Find the Taylor expansion of cos(x) near x=0 up to 5th and 7th orders.

syms x
t5 = taylor(cos(x),x,'Order',5)
t5 = 

x424-x22+1

t7 = taylor(cos(x),x,'Order',7)
t7 = 

-x6720+x424-x22+1

Plot cos(x) and its Taylor approximations.

fplot(cos(x))
hold on;
fplot([t5 t7],'--')
axis([-4 4 -1.5 1.5])
title('Taylor Series Approximations of cos(x) up to 5th and 7th Order')
legend show
hold off;

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title Taylor Series Approximations of cos(x) up to 5th and 7th Order contains 3 objects of type functionline.

Plot the Fourier Series Approximation of a Square Wave

A square wave of period 2π and amplitude π/4 can be approximated by the Fourier series expansion

sin(t)+13sin(3t)+15sin(5t)+....

Plot a square wave with period 2π and amplitude π/4.

syms t y(t)
y(t) = piecewise(0 < mod(t,2*pi) <= pi, pi/4, pi < mod(t,2*pi) <= 2*pi, -pi/4);
fplot(y)

Plot the Fourier series approximation of the square wave.

hold on;
n = 6;
yFourier = cumsum(sin((1:2:2*n-1)*t)./(1:2:2*n-1));
fplot(yFourier,'LineWidth',1)
hold off

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 7 objects of type functionline.

The Fourier series approximation overshoots at a jump discontinuity and the "ringing" does not die out as more terms are added to the approximation. This behavior is also known as the Gibbs phenomenon.

Plot a Parametric Curve (x(t),y(t),z(t)) Using fplot3

Plot a helix that is defined by (sin(t),cos(t),t/4) for t from –10 to 10.

syms t
fplot3(sin(t),cos(t),t/4,[-10 10],'LineWidth',2)
view([-45 45])

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type parameterizedfunctionline.

Plot a Surface Defined by z=f(x,y) Using fsurf

Plot a surface defined by log(x)+exp(y). Analytical plotting using fsurf (without generating numerical data) shows the curved areas and asymptotic regions near x=0.

syms x y
fsurf(log(x) + exp(y),[0 2 -1 3])
xlabel('x')

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with xlabel x contains an object of type functionsurface.

Plot a Multivariate Surface (x(u,v),y(u,v),z(u,v)) Using fsurf

Plot a multivariate surface defined by

x(u,v)=u

y(u,v)=f(u)sin(v)

z(u,v)=f(u)cos(v)

where f(u)=exp(-u2/3)sin(u)+3/2.

Set the plot interval of u from –5 to 5 and v from 0 to 2π.

syms f(u) x(u,v) y(u,v) z(u,v)
f(u) = sin(u)*exp(-u^2/3)+1.5;
x(u,v) = u;
y(u,v) = f(u)*sin(v);
z(u,v) = f(u)*cos(v);
fsurf(x,y,z,[-5 5 0 2*pi])

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type parameterizedfunctionsurface.

Plot a Multivariate Surface (x(s,t),y(s,t),z(s,t)) Using fmesh

Plot a multivariate surface defined by

x=rcos(s)sin(t)

y=rsin(s)sin(t)

z=rcos(t)

where r=8+sin(7s+5t). Show the plotted surface as meshes by using fmesh. Set the plot interval of s from 0 to 2π and t from 0 to π.

syms s t
r = 8 + sin(7*s + 5*t);
x = r*cos(s)*sin(t);
y = r*sin(s)*sin(t);
z = r*cos(t);
fmesh(x,y,z,[0 2*pi 0 pi],'Linewidth',2)
axis equal

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type parameterizedfunctionsurface.

Plot an Implicit Surface f(x,y,z)=c Using fimplicit3

Plot the implicit surface 1/x2-1/y2+1/z2=0.

syms x y z
f = 1/x^2 - 1/y^2 + 1/z^2;
fimplicit3(f)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type implicitfunctionsurface.

Plot the Contours and Gradient of a Surface

Plot the surface sin(x)+sin(y)-(x2+y2)/20 using fsurf. You can show the contours on the same graph by setting 'ShowContours' to 'on'.

syms x y
f = sin(x)+sin(y)-(x^2+y^2)/20
f = 

sin(x)+sin(y)-x220-y220

fsurf(f,'ShowContours','on')
view(-19,56)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type functionsurface.

Next, plot the contours on a separate graph with finer contour lines.

fcontour(f,[-5 5 -5 5],'LevelStep',0.1,'Fill','on')
colorbar

Find the gradient of the surface. Create 2-D grids using meshgrid and substitute the grid coordinates to evaluate the gradient numerically. Show the gradient using quiver.

hold on
Fgrad = gradient(f,[x,y])
Fgrad = 

(cos(x)-x10cos(y)-y10)

[xgrid,ygrid] = meshgrid(-5:5,-5:5);
Fx = subs(Fgrad(1),{x,y},{xgrid,ygrid});
Fy = subs(Fgrad(2),{x,y},{xgrid,ygrid});
quiver(xgrid,ygrid,Fx,Fy,'k')
hold off

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 2 objects of type functioncontour, quiver.

See Also

Functions