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Intersection of parabola.
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Hello,
I am trying to find the intersection of a parabolic function, not graphically, but numerically. I have a parabolic function f(x), I want to find BOTH points of intersection for a value of 'y'. The way I have tried to do it, only returns one value, it is as follows:
>f=f(x);
>y = 0.6; %value to find
>inter = abs(f-y)
>[idx idx] = min(inter); %index of closest value
>closest = f(idx) %closest value %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
that only returns one of the closest values, I know for a fact that at that point on 'y' it should intersect at two points on the parabola.
I am not sure how to approach this.
Thanks in advance.
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Answers (2)
Star Strider
on 20 Apr 2016
You know the equation for the parabola and the value you want to solve for, so just use that information and the roots function:
quad_coefs = [2 -4 -3]; % Parabola (Quadratic) Coefficients
const = 10; % Desired Value
subt_const = quad_coefs - [0 0 const]; % Subtract Desired Value
orig_roots = roots(quad_coefs) % Original Roots
new_roots = roots(subt_const) % Values (Roots) At ‘y=10’
x = linspace(-5, 5);
figure(1)
plot(x, polyval(quad_coefs,x))
hold on
plot(xlim, [1 1]*const)
hold off
grid
text(new_roots(1), const, sprintf('x = %.3f \\downarrow',new_roots(1)), 'HorizontalAlignment','right', 'VerticalAlignment','bottom')
text(new_roots(2), const, sprintf('\\downarrow x = %.3f',new_roots(2)), 'HorizontalAlignment','left', 'VerticalAlignment','bottom')
You mentioned that you don’t need the plot for your application. However, it helps to use one to show the results:
![](https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/uploaded_files/174132/image.png)
This code also works for complex roots, but the plot will be irrelevant with them.
2 Comments
Star Strider
on 21 Apr 2016
Edited: Star Strider
on 21 Apr 2016
I need to understand something. You said ‘parabola’, so that implies a second-degree polynomial, at least to me. It may be a function of several variables, but it should still be a second-degree polynomial, or data modeled by a second-degree polynomial. It should not be all that difficult to use polyfit to estimate its parameters.
If your curve is something else, knowing what it is would be helpful.
EDIT — It would have been quite helpful to know that your ‘parabola’ really isn’t a parabola, as you mentioned in your duplicate Question: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/280131-finding-the-intersection-of-a-line-and-a-parabola-numerically.
Not cool.
Meade
on 20 Apr 2016
Instead of min, try sort to get the values and indices of your logical condition. For ex.
[sVals, sIdx] = sort(inter); % All values in order from small to large
twoMins = sVals(1:2); % Only the 2 smallest
closest1 = f(sIdx(1)); % the value of "f" at the two smallest
closest2 = f(sIdx(2));
2 Comments
Meade
on 21 Apr 2016
You have common x values for the two curves. The differences are the y values for the two curves.
You've already found the absolute difference in those y values and saved it to the "inter" variable. You're so close!
Now you use sort to put all those differences in order from smallest to largest. You said that you know there are 2 intersections of interest, so you want the first 2 results from sort. Make sense?
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