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A Very Elementary MATLAB Tutorial

• Prerequisites and Expectations for the Tutorial
• A Very Elementary MATLAB Tutorial
• Starting MATLAB
• Running the Demos
• Getting Help
• Creating Variables
• Performing Calculations
• Visualizing Data
• Creating Scripts with MATLAB Editor/Debugger
• Saving Variables and Sessions
• Working with Files, Directories and Paths

MATLAB is a computer program that can be very helpful in solving the sorts of mathematical problems you will frequently encounter throughout your engineering or technology coursework.

You can use built-in features of MATLAB to effortlessly solve a wide variety of numerical problems, from the very basic, such as a system of 2 equations with 2 unknowns:

X + 2Y = 24
12X - 5Y = 10

to the more complex, such as factoring polynomials, fitting curves to data points, making calculations using matrices, performing signal processing operations such as Fourier transforms, and building and training neural networks.

A very powerful and often very useful aspect of MATLAB is that it can be used to plot many different kinds of graphs, enabling you to visualize complex mathematical functions and laboratory data. For example, the three images below were created using MATLAB plotting functions.

Learning MATLAB
Learning MATLAB is just like learning how to drive a car. You can learn all the rules but to become a good driver you have to get out on the road and drive. The easiest and best way to learn MATLAB is to use MATLAB.

If you have a strong background in mathematics and computer programming then you can quickly learn how MATLAB can help you with your course work and design projects. However, for those of you who are just starting out learning MATLAB, then this tutorial is for you.

Continue on to the next lesson.