MATLAB Basics: Arithmetic Operations and Functions

These flashcards cover key vocabulary related to arithmetic operations, built-in functions, variable management, and formatting commands in MATLAB.

Addition

An arithmetic operation that combines two numbers to get their total.

Subtraction

An arithmetic operation that determines the difference between two numbers.

Multiplication

An arithmetic operation that calculates the total when one number is taken a certain number of times.

Division

An arithmetic operation where one number is divided by another.

Exponentiation

An arithmetic operation that raises a number to a power.

Order of Precedence

The rules defining the order in which operations are performed in calculations.

Parentheses

Used to group operations in expressions to dictate order.

Fixed-point format

A way to display numbers with a fixed number of digits after the decimal.

Scientific notation

A method of expressing numbers as a product of a number between 1 and 10 and a power of 10.

Square root

A function that returns a number that, when multiplied by itself, gives the original number.

Factorial

A function that multiplies a number by every positive integer less than itself.

Sine (sin) function

A trigonometric function that calculates the sine of an angle.

Round function

A function that rounds a number to the nearest integer.

Assignment operator

The equals sign '=' used to assign values to variables.

Predefined variable 'ans'

Automatically stores the result of the last computation not assigned to a variable.

Keywords

Reserved words in MATLAB that cannot be used as variable names.

Infinity (inf)

A constant in MATLAB representing an unbounded quantity.

Not-a-Number (NaN)

A value in MATLAB used to represent an undefined or unrepresentable numerical result.

Clear command

Used to remove one or all variables from memory in MATLAB.

Who command

Displays a list of the variables currently in memory.

Whos command

Displays variables in memory along with their sizes and data types.