Intro to MATLAB

written by Yiran Li

MATLAB(Matri X Laboratory) is first designed by Cleve Moler in the 1970s. It's first adopted to control engineering but it spread to other fields rapidly. MATLAB works mainly with linear algebra, numerical analysis and image processing. The basic element of MATLAB is an array that does not require dimension. In industry, MATLAB is the tool of choice for high-productivity research, development, and analysis.

The simple in programming MATLAB contains setting Variables and functions, calculations of vectors and matrices and plotting graphs. From the MATLAB, it's easy for users to deal with thousands of data. For instance, if you want to calculate the standard deviation of temperature of a city in 5 years, you can first set a function and its inputs and outputs, then type in the equation of calculating standard deviation based on your input and get your answer. Based on the simple calculation, MATLAB can help you with advanced computations in many fields. It also has debugging system that can help the user to correct their mistakes in the programming step by step. Also, there's interesting Easter Egg in the MATLAB, including hidden pictures and jokes. EGR102 talks about the programming in MATLAB in detail.

Reference: https://www.math.mtu.edu/~msgocken/intro/intro.html