Month: July 2020

How do I solve an initial value ODE problem in MATLAB? Updated for MATLAB 2020a

Many students ask me how do I do this or that in MATLAB.  So I thought why not have a small series of my next few blogs do that.  In this blog, I show you how to solve an initial value ordinary differential equation.

  • The MATLAB program link is here.
  • The HTML version of the MATLAB program is here.
  • DO NOT COPY AND PASTE THE PROGRAM BELOW BECAUSE THE SINGLE QUOTES DO NOT TRANSLATE TO THE CORRECT SINGLE QUOTES IN MATLAB EDITOR.  DOWNLOAD THE MATLAB PROGRAM INSTEAD

%% HOW DO I DO THAT IN MATLAB SERIES?
% In this series, I am answering questions that students have asked
% me about MATLAB. Most of the questions relate to a mathematical
% procedure.

%% TOPIC
% How do I solve an initial value ordinary differential equation?

%% SUMMARY

% Language : Matlab 2020b;
% Authors : Autar Kaw;
% Mfile available at
% http://nm.mathforcollege.com/blog/ode_initial_updated.m;
% Last Revised : December 22 2020;
% Abstract: This program shows you how to solve an
% initial value ordinary differential equation.
clc
clear all

%% INTRODUCTION

disp(‘ABSTRACT’)
disp(‘ This program shows you how to solve’)
disp(‘ an initial value ordinary differential equation’)
disp(‘ ‘)
disp(‘AUTHOR’)
disp(‘ Autar K Kaw of http://autarkaw.wordpress.com‘)
disp(‘ ‘)
disp(‘MFILE SOURCE’)
disp(‘ http://nm.mathforcollege.com/blog/ode_initial_updated.m‘)
disp(‘ ‘)
disp(‘LAST REVISED’)
disp(‘ Dec 22 2020’)
disp(‘ ‘)

%% INPUTS
% Solve the ordinary differential equation 3y”+5y’+7y=11exp(-x)
% Define x as a symbol
% Define y(x)n as a symbol also
syms x y(x)
%The ODE
Dy=diff(y);
ode_eqn=3*diff(y,x,2)+5*diff(y,x,1)+7*y == 11*exp(-13*x);
% The initial conditions
iv_1=Dy(0)==17;
iv_2=y(0)==19;
% The value at which y is sought at
xval=2.0;
%% DISPLAYING INPUTS

disp(‘INPUTS’)
func=[‘ The ODE to be solved is ‘ char(ode_eqn)];
disp(func)
iv_explain=[‘ The initial conditions are %s’ char(iv_1) ‘ ‘ char(iv_2)];
disp(iv_explain)
fprintf(‘ The value of y is sought at x=%g’,xval)
disp(‘ ‘)

%% THE CODE
conds=[iv_1 iv_2];
% Finding the solution of the ordinary differential equation
soln=dsolve(ode_eqn,conds);
soln=simplify(soln);
% vpa below uses variable-precision arithmetic (VPA) to compute each
% element of soln to 5 decimal digits of accuracy
soln=vpa(soln,5);

%% DISPLAYING OUTPUTS
disp(‘ ‘)
disp(‘OUTPUTS’)
output=[‘ The solution to the ODE is ‘ char(soln)];
disp(output)
value=subs(soln,x,xval);
fprintf(‘ The value of y at x=%g is %g’,xval,value)
disp(‘ ‘)

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