To find exponent in power law equation of the form y = ax^m + b

21 views (last 30 days)
I have X and Y points for a curve to be of the form Y = ax^m + b.
I want to find the exponent m, lets just say that m could be inbetween 1.2 - 2.5.
How can I find exact value for m?

Accepted Answer

Matt J
Matt J on 19 Jan 2023
Edited: Matt J on 19 Jan 2023
fminspleas downloadable from
is especially appropriate for power law fits.
a = 0.55;
m = 1.3;
b = -0.78;
% dummy data
x = (1:25)';
y = a*x.^m + b + randn(size(x));
m=fminspleas( {@(m,x)x.^m , 1}, 2,x,y, 1.2,2.5 )
m = 1.2933
  2 Comments
Faisal
Faisal on 19 Jan 2023
thank you for your simple code.
I have found the value of m.
Could you please explain that the following code will give the similar answer or it would be different?
file='03_L.xlsx';
[Fs] = xlsread(file,1,'B2:B1216');
[dep] = xlsread(file,1,'A2:A1216');
fcn = @(b,dep) b(1).*dep.^b(2) + b(3); % Objective Function
B = fminsearch(@(b) norm(Fs - fcn(b,dep)), rand(3,1)*2) % Estimate Parameters
figure
plot(dep, Fs, '.')
hold on
plot(dep, fcn(B,dep), '-r')
hold off
grid
Matt J
Matt J on 19 Jan 2023
Probably similar, but with 3 unknowns fminsearch is not guaranteed to converge, so no rigorous predictions are possible.

Sign in to comment.

More Answers (2)

Mathieu NOE
Mathieu NOE on 19 Jan 2023
hello
try this
may need some refinement for the initial guess for the parameters depending of your data
a = 0.55;
m = 1.3;
b = -0.78;
% dummy data
x = (1:25);
y = a*x.^m + b + randn(size(x));
% equation model y = a*x^m + b
f = @(a,m,b,x) (a*x.^m + b);
obj_fun = @(params) norm(f(params(1), params(2), params(3),x)-y);
% IC guessed
sol = fminsearch(obj_fun, rand(3,1));
a_sol = sol(1)
a_sol = 0.4997
m_sol = sol(2)
m_sol = 1.3288
b_sol = sol(3)
b_sol = -0.4661
y_fit = f(a_sol, m_sol, b_sol, x);
Rsquared = my_Rsquared_coeff(y,y_fit); % correlation coefficient
figure(1)
plot(x,y,'rd',x,y_fit,'b-');
title(['Power Fit / R² = ' num2str(Rsquared) ], 'FontSize', 15)
ylabel('Intensity (arb. unit)', 'FontSize', 14)
xlabel('x(nm)', 'FontSize', 14)
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
function Rsquared = my_Rsquared_coeff(data,data_fit)
% R² correlation coefficient computation
% The total sum of squares
sum_of_squares = sum((data-mean(data)).^2);
% The sum of squares of residuals, also called the residual sum of squares:
sum_of_squares_of_residuals = sum((data-data_fit).^2);
% definition of the coefficient of correlation is
Rsquared = 1 - sum_of_squares_of_residuals/sum_of_squares;
end

Matt J
Matt J on 19 Jan 2023
If you have the Curve Fitting Toolbox,
a = 0.55;
m = 1.3;
b = -0.78;
% dummy data
x = (1:25)';
y = a*x.^m + b + randn(size(x));
fobj=fit(x,y,'power2','Lower',[-inf,1.2,-inf],'Upper',[+inf,2.5,+inf])
fobj =
General model Power2: fobj(x) = a*x^b+c Coefficients (with 95% confidence bounds): a = 0.5425 (0.2922, 0.7927) b = 1.295 (1.157, 1.434) c = -0.3202 (-1.66, 1.02)
plot(fobj,x,y)

Categories

Find more on Discrete Data Plots in Help Center and File Exchange

Community Treasure Hunt

Find the treasures in MATLAB Central and discover how the community can help you!

Start Hunting!