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While searching the internet for some books on ordinary differential equations, I came across a link that I believe is very useful for all math students and not only. If you are interested in ODEs, it's worth taking the time to study it.
A First Look at Ordinary Differential Equations by Timothy S. Judson is an excellent resource for anyone looking to understand ODEs better. Here's a brief overview of the main topics covered:
  1. Introduction to ODEs: Basic concepts, definitions, and initial differential equations.
  2. Methods of Solution:
  • Separable equations
  • First-order linear equations
  • Exact equations
  • Transcendental functions
  1. Applications of ODEs: Practical examples and applications in various scientific fields.
  2. Systems of ODEs: Analysis and solutions of systems of differential equations.
  3. Series and Numerical Methods: Use of series and numerical methods for solving ODEs.
This book provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to ODEs, making it suitable for students and new researchers in mathematics. If you're interested, you can explore the book in more detail here: A First Look at Ordinary Differential Equations.
goc3
goc3
Last activity on 7 Jun 2024

Trick: Easy Digit Manipulation

There are a host of problems on Cody that require manipulation of the digits of a number. Examples include summing the digits of a number, separating the number into its powers, and adding very large numbers together.
If you haven't come across this trick yet, you might want to write it down (or save it electronically):
digits = num2str(4207) - '0'
That code results in the following:
digits =
4 2 0 7
Now, summing the digits of the number is easy:
sum(digits)
ans =
13
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Hans Scharler
Hans Scharler
Last activity on 31 May 2024

Time for Tulips

Spring is here in Natick and the tulips are blooming! While tulips appear only briefly here in Massachusetts, they provide a lot of bright and diverse colors and shapes. To celebrate this cheerful flower, here's some code to create your own tulip!
https://blogs.mathworks.com/matlab/2024/05/15/celebrating-spring-matlab-tulip
Chen Lin
Chen Lin
Last activity on 9 Jun 2024

🌿🐑 Meet MATLAMB 🐑🌿

Drumlin Farm has welcomed MATLAMB, named in honor of MathWorks, among ten adorable new lambs this season!
📚 New Book Announcement: "Image Processing Recipes in MATLAB" 📚
I am delighted to share the release of my latest book, "Image Processing Recipes in MATLAB," co-authored by my dear friend and colleague Gustavo Benvenutti Borba.
This 'cookbook' contains 30 practical recipes for image processing, ranging from foundational techniques to recently published algorithms. It serves as a concise and readable reference for quickly and efficiently deploying image processing pipelines in MATLAB.
Gustavo and I are immensely grateful to the MathWorks Book Program for their support. We also want to thank Randi Slack and her fantastic team at CRC Press for their patience, expertise, and professionalism throughout the process.
___________
Hans Scharler
Hans Scharler
Last activity on 17 May 2024

The Office Words Spoken by Episode

I found this plot of words said by different characters on the US version of The Office sitcom. There's a sparkline for each character from pilot to finale episode.
A high school student called for help with this physics problem:
  • Car A moves with constant velocity v.
  • Car B starts to move when Car A passes through the point P.
  • Car B undergoes...
  • uniform acc. motion from P to Q.
  • uniform velocity motion from Q to R.
  • uniform acc. motion from R to S.
  • Car A and B pass through the point R simultaneously.
  • Car A and B arrive at the point S simultaneously.
Q1. When car A passes the point Q, which is moving faster?
Q2. Solve the time duration for car B to move from P to Q using L and v.
Q3. Magnitude of acc. of car B from P to Q, and from R to S: which is bigger?
Well, it can be solved with a series of tedious equations. But... how about this?
Code below:
%% get images and prepare stuffs
figure(WindowStyle="docked"),
ax1 = subplot(2,1,1);
hold on, box on
ax1.XTick = [];
ax1.YTick = [];
A = plot(0, 1, 'ro', MarkerSize=10, MarkerFaceColor='r');
B = plot(0, 0, 'bo', MarkerSize=10, MarkerFaceColor='b');
[carA, ~, alphaA] = imread('https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2013/07/12/11/58/car-145008_960_720.png');
[carB, ~, alphaB] = imread('https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2014/04/03/10/54/car-311712_960_720.png');
carA = imrotate(imresize(carA, 0.1), -90);
carB = imrotate(imresize(carB, 0.1), 180);
alphaA = imrotate(imresize(alphaA, 0.1), -90);
alphaB = imrotate(imresize(alphaB, 0.1), 180);
carA = imagesc(carA, AlphaData=alphaA, XData=[-0.1, 0.1], YData=[0.9, 1.1]);
carB = imagesc(carB, AlphaData=alphaB, XData=[-0.1, 0.1], YData=[-0.1, 0.1]);
txtA = text(0, 0.85, 'A', FontSize=12);
txtB = text(0, 0.17, 'B', FontSize=12);
yline(1, 'r--')
yline(0, 'b--')
xline(1, 'k--')
xline(2, 'k--')
text(1, -0.2, 'Q', FontSize=20, HorizontalAlignment='center')
text(2, -0.2, 'R', FontSize=20, HorizontalAlignment='center')
% legend('A', 'B') % this make the animation slow. why?
xlim([0, 3])
ylim([-.3, 1.3])
%% axes2: plots velocity graph
ax2 = subplot(2,1,2);
box on, hold on
xlabel('t'), ylabel('v')
vA = plot(0, 1, 'r.-');
vB = plot(0, 0, 'b.-');
xline(1, 'k--')
xline(2, 'k--')
xlim([0, 3])
ylim([-.3, 1.8])
p1 = patch([0, 0, 0, 0], [0, 1, 1, 0], [248, 209, 188]/255, ...
EdgeColor = 'none', ...
FaceAlpha = 0.3);
%% solution
v = 1; % car A moves with constant speed.
L = 1; % distances of P-Q, Q-R, R-S
% acc. of car B for three intervals
a(1) = 9*v^2/8/L;
a(2) = 0;
a(3) = -1;
t_BatQ = sqrt(2*L/a(1)); % time when car B arrives at Q
v_B2 = a(1) * t_BatQ; % speed of car B between Q-R
%% patches for velocity graph
p2 = patch([t_BatQ, t_BatQ, t_BatQ, t_BatQ], [1, 1, v_B2, v_B2], ...
[248, 209, 188]/255, ...
EdgeColor = 'none', ...
FaceAlpha = 0.3);
p3 = patch([2, 2, 2, 2], [1, v_B2, v_B2, 1], [194, 234, 179]/255, ...
EdgeColor = 'none', ...
FaceAlpha = 0.3);
%% animation
tt = linspace(0, 3, 2000);
for t = tt
A.XData = v * t;
vA.XData = [vA.XData, t];
vA.YData = [vA.YData, 1];
if t < t_BatQ
B.XData = 1/2 * a(1) * t^2;
vB.XData = [vB.XData, t];
vB.YData = [vB.YData, a(1) * t];
p1.XData = [0, t, t, 0];
p1.YData = [0, vB.YData(end), 1, 1];
elseif t >= t_BatQ && t < 2
B.XData = L + (t - t_BatQ) * v_B2;
vB.XData = [vB.XData, t];
vB.YData = [vB.YData, v_B2];
p2.XData = [t_BatQ, t, t, t_BatQ];
p2.YData = [1, 1, vB.YData(end), vB.YData(end)];
else
B.XData = 2*L + v_B2 * (t - 2) + 1/2 * a(3) * (t-2)^2;
vB.XData = [vB.XData, t];
vB.YData = [vB.YData, v_B2 + a(3) * (t - 2)];
p3.XData = [2, t, t, 2];
p3.YData = [1, 1, vB.YData(end), v_B2];
end
txtA.Position(1) = A.XData(end);
txtB.Position(1) = B.XData(end);
carA.XData = A.XData(end) + [-.1, .1];
carB.XData = B.XData(end) + [-.1, .1];
drawnow
end
Dear MATLAB contest enthusiasts,
I believe many of you have been captivated by the innovative entries from Zhaoxu Liu / slanderer, in the 2023 MATLAB Flipbook Mini Hack contest.
Ever wondered about the person behind these creative entries? What drives a MATLAB user to such levels of skill? And what inspired his participation in the contest? We were just as curious as you are!
We were delighted to catch up with him and learn more about his use of MATLAB. The interview has recently been published in MathWorks Blogs. For an in-depth look into his insights and experiences, be sure to read our latest blog post: Community Q&A – Zhaoxu Liu.
But the conversation doesn't end here! Who would you like to see featured in our next interview? Drop their name in the comments section below and let us know who we should reach out to next!
Updating some of my educational Livescripts to 2024a, really love the new "define a function anywhere" feature, and have a "new" idea for improving Livescripts -- support "hidden" code blocks similar to the Jupyter Notebooks functionality.
For example, I often create "complicated" plots with a bunch of ancillary items and I don't want this code exposed to the reader by default, as it might confuse the reader. For example, consider a Livescript that might read like this:
-----
Noting the similar structure of these two mappings, let's now write a function that simply maps from some domain to some other domain using change of variable.
function x = ChangeOfVariable( x, from_domain, to_domain )
x = x - from_domain(1);
x = x * ( ( to_domain(2) - to_domain(1) ) / ( from_domain(2) - from_domain(1) ) );
x = x + to_domain(1);
end
Let's see this function in action
% HIDE CELL
clear
close all
from_domain = [-1, 1];
to_domain = [2, 7];
from_values = [-1, -0.5, 0, 0.5, 1];
to_values = ChangeOfVariable( from_values, from_domain, to_domain )
to_values = 1×5
2.0000 3.2500 4.5000 5.7500 7.0000
We can plot the values of from_values and to_values, showing how they're connected to each other:
% HIDE CELL
figure
hold on
for n = 1 : 5
plot( [from_values(n) to_values(n)], [1 0], Color="k", LineWidth=1 )
end
ax = gca;
ax.YTick = [];
ax.XLim = [ min( [from_domain, to_domain] ) - 1, max( [from_domain, to_domain] ) + 1 ];
ax.YLim = [-0.5, 1.5];
ax.XGrid = "on";
scatter( from_values, ones( 5, 1 ), Marker="s", MarkerFaceColor="flat", MarkerEdgeColor="k", SizeData=120, LineWidth=1, SeriesIndex=1 )
text( mean( from_domain ), 1.25, "$\xi$", Interpreter="latex", HorizontalAlignment="center", VerticalAlignment="middle" )
scatter( to_values, zeros( 5, 1 ), Marker="o", MarkerFaceColor="flat", MarkerEdgeColor="k", SizeData=120, LineWidth=1, SeriesIndex=2 )
text( mean( to_domain ), -0.25, "$x$", Interpreter="latex", HorizontalAlignment="center", VerticalAlignment="middle" )
scaled_arrow( ax, [mean( [from_domain(1), to_domain(1) ] ) - 1, 0.5], ( 1 - 0 ) / ( from_domain(1) - to_domain(1) ), 1 )
scaled_arrow( ax, [mean( [from_domain(end), to_domain(end)] ) + 1, 0.5], ( 1 - 0 ) / ( from_domain(end) - to_domain(end) ), -1 )
text( mean( [from_domain(1), to_domain(1) ] ) - 1.5, 0.5, "$x(\xi)$", Interpreter="latex", HorizontalAlignment="center", VerticalAlignment="middle" )
text( mean( [from_domain(end), to_domain(end)] ) + 1.5, 0.5, "$\xi(x)$", Interpreter="latex", HorizontalAlignment="center", VerticalAlignment="middle" )
-----
Where scaled_arrow is some utility function I've defined elsewhere... See how a majority of the code is simply "drivel" to create the plot, clear and close? I'd like to be able to hide those cells so that it would look more like this:
-----
Noting the similar structure of these two mappings, let's now write a function that simply maps from some domain to some other domain using change of variable.
function x = ChangeOfVariable( x, from_domain, to_domain )
x = x - from_domain(1);
x = x * ( ( to_domain(2) - to_domain(1) ) / ( from_domain(2) - from_domain(1) ) );
x = x + to_domain(1);
end
Let's see this function in action
▶ Show code cell
from_domain = [-1, 1];
to_domain = [2, 7];
from_values = [-1, -0.5, 0, 0.5, 1];
to_values = ChangeOfVariable( from_values, from_domain, to_domain )
to_values = 1×5
2.0000 3.2500 4.5000 5.7500 7.0000
We can plot the values of from_values and to_values, showing how they're connected to each other:
▶ Show code cell
-----
Thoughts?
I recently had issues with code folding seeming to disappear and it turns out that I had unknowingly disabled the "show code folding margin" option by accident. Despite using MATLAB for several years, I had no idea this was an option, especially since there seemed to be no references to it in the code folding part of the "Preferences" menu.
It would be great if in the future, there was a warning that told you about this when you try enable/disable folding in the Preferences.
I am using 2023b by the way.
In the MATLAB editor, when clicking on a variable name, all the other instances of the variable name will be highlighted.
But this does not work for structure fields, which is a pity. Such feature would be quite often useful for me.
I show an illustration below, and compare it with Visual Studio Code that does it. ;-)
I am using MATLAB R2023a, sorry if it has been added to newer versions, but I didn't see it in the release notes.
Today, he got dressed for work to design some new dog toy-making algorithms. #nationalpetday
Transforming my furry friend into a grayscale masterpiece with MATLAB! 🐾 #MATLABPetsDay ✌️
This is Stella while waiting to see if the code works...
In short: support varying color in at least the plot, plot3, fplot, and fplot3 functions.
This has been a thing that's come up quite a few times, and includes questions/requests by users, workarounds by the community, and workarounds presented by MathWorks -- examples of each below. It's a feature that exists in Python's Matplotlib library and Sympy. Anyways, given that there are myriads of workarounds, it appears to be one of the most common requests for Matlab plots (Matlab's plotting is, IMO, one of the best features of the product), the request precedes the 21st century, and competitive tools provide the functionality, it would seem to me that this might be the next great feature for Matlab plotting.
I'm curious to get the rest of the community's thoughts... what's everyone else think about this?
---
User questions/requests
User-provided workarounds
MathWorks-provided workarounds
I would like to propose the creation of MATLAB EduHub, a dedicated channel within the MathWorks community where educators, students, and professionals can share and access a wealth of educational material that utilizes MATLAB. This platform would act as a central repository for articles, teaching notes, and interactive learning modules that integrate MATLAB into the teaching and learning of various scientific fields.
Key Features:
1. Resource Sharing: Users will be able to upload and share their own educational materials, such as articles, tutorials, code snippets, and datasets.
2. Categorization and Search: Materials can be categorized for easy searching by subject area, difficulty level, and MATLAB version..
3. Community Engagement: Features for comments, ratings, and discussions to encourage community interaction.
4. Support for Educators: Special sections for educators to share teaching materials and track engagement.
Benefits:
- Enhanced Educational Experience: The platform will enrich the learning experience through access to quality materials.
- Collaboration and Networking: It will promote collaboration and networking within the MATLAB community.
- Accessibility of Resources: It will make educational materials available to a wider audience.
By establishing MATLAB EduHub, I propose a space where knowledge and experience can be freely shared, enhancing the educational process and the MATLAB community as a whole.
In one line of MATLAB code, compute how far you can see at the seashore. In otherwords, how far away is the horizon from your eyes? You can assume you know your height and the diameter or radius of the earth.