Orthogonal Trajectories in Matlab

Hello,

I am trying to verify my anwser in Matlab.

The question given is: Find the value of the number a such that the families of curves y = (x + c) ^−1 and y = a (x + k)^1/3 are orthogonal trajectories.

I found a= 3^1/3 or cube root of 3.

I have never did anything with orthogonal trajectories in Matlab so any help is greatly appreaciated.

Regards,

Nick

[darova]

You want draw/plot these curves?

[Nicholas Perez]

Yes, I would like to plot the curves.

[darova]

What about plot() function?

[Nicholas Perez]

To be honest, I am a newbie to MATLAB so I am trying to learn on what to do.

[darova]

How far you are from success?

[Jenny LaFlair]

I need help as well.

[darova]

Can you be more precise? What kind of help do you need?

[David Goodmanson]

Hi Nicholas,

You can create the first curve with

x = 0:.001:5;    % or whatever
y1 = (x+c).^(-1)

and do something similar for the other function y2. Then if you do plot(x,y1,x,y2) and experiment a bit with the upper and lower limits on x (one or both might need to be negative) you should be able to see the lines cross at right angles. But only if, after the plot command line, you use 'axis equal'. 'Axis equal' makes right angles look like right angles.