I'm using Matlab 2014b. I've tried:
clear all
syms x real
assumeAlso(x>=5)
This returned:
ans =
[ 5 <= x, in(x, 'real')]
Then I tried:
int(sqrt(x^2-25)/x,x)
But this still returned a complex answer:
(x^2 - 25)^(1/2) - log(((x^2 - 25)^(1/2) + 5*i)/x)*5*i
I tried the simplify command, but still a complex answer. Now, this might be fixed in the latest version of Matlab. If so, can people let me know or offer a suggestion for getting the real answer?
The hand-calculated answer is sqrt(x^2-25)-5*asec(x/5)+C.
This behavior is present in R2017b, though when converted to floating point the imaginary components are different.
Why does this occur?
This occurs because Matlab's int function returns the full general solution when you ask for the indefinite integral. This solution is valid over the entire domain of of real values, including your restricted domain of x>=5.
With a bit of math you can show that the solution is always real for x>=5 (see complex logarithm). Or you can use more symbolic math via the isAlways function to show this:
syms x real
assume(x>=5)
y = int(sqrt(x^2-25)/x, x)
isAlways(imag(y)==0)
This returns true (logical 1). Unfortunately, Matlab's simplification routines appear to not be able to reduce this expression when assumptions are included. You might also submit this case to The MathWorks as a service request in case they'd consider improving the simplification for this and similar equations.
How can this be "fixed"?
If you want to get rid of the zero-valued imaginary part of the solution you can use sym/real:
real(y)
which returns 5*atan2(5, (x^2-25)^(1/2)) + (x^2-25)^(1/2).
Also, as #SardarUsama points out, when the full solution is converted to floating point (or variable precision) there will sometimes numeric imprecision when converting from exact symbolic form. Using the symbolic real form above should avoid this.
The answer is not really complex.
Take a look at this:
clear all; %To clear the conditions of x as real and >=5 (simple clear doesn't clear that)
syms x;
y = int(sqrt(x^2-25)/x, x)
which, as we know, gives:
y =
(x^2 - 25)^(1/2) - log(((x^2 - 25)^(1/2) + 5i)/x)*5i
Now put some real values of x≥5 to check what result it gives:
n = 1004; %We'll be putting 1000 values of x in y from 5 to 1004
yk = zeros(1000,1); %Preallocation
for k=5:n
yk(k-4) = subs(y,x,k); %Putting the value of x
end
Now let's check the imaginary part of the result we have:
>> imag(yk)
ans =
1.0e-70 *
0
0
0
0
0.028298997121333
0.028298997121333
0.028298997121333
%and so on...
Notice the multiplier 1e-70.
Let's check the maximum value of imaginary part in yk.
>> max(imag(yk))
ans =
1.131959884853339e-71
This implies that the imaginary part is extremely small and it is not a considerable amount to be worried about. Ideally it may be zero and it's coming due to imprecise calculations. Hence, it is safe to call your result real.
I must to use angle = atan2(norm(cross(a,b)),dot(a,b)), for calculating the angle between two vectors a,b and these are double type and norm is undefined for this type. How do I resolve this problem? I need to calculate the angle between two vectors this way.
In your comments, you have shown us how you are actually writing out the angle calculation and it is not the same as how you have put it in your post.
atan2(norm(cross(I(i,j,:),I_avg)),dot(I(i,j,:),I_avg));
I is an image you are loading in. I'm assuming it's colour because of the way you are subsetting I. Because I is a 3D matrix, doing I(i,j,:) will give you a 1 x 1 x 3 vector when in fact this has to be a 1D vector. norm does not recognize this structure which is why you're getting this error. Therefore, you need to use squeeze to remove the singleton dimensions so that this will become a 3 x 1 vector, rather than a 1 x 1 x 3 vector. As such, you need to rewrite your code so that you're doing this instead. Bear in mind that in your comments, angle is always overwritten inside the for loop, so you probably want to save the results of each pixel. With this, you probably want to create a 2D array of angles that will store these results. In other words:
I=imread('thesis.jpg');
I = double(I);
angles = zeros(m,n);
I_avg = squeeze(I_avg); %// Just in case
for i=1:m
for j=1:n
pixels = squeeze(I(i,j,:)); %// Add this statement and squeeze
angles(i,j) = atan2(norm(pixels,I_avg)),dot(pixels,I_avg)); %// Change
end
end
Minor note
MATLAB has a built-in function called angle that determines the angle from the origin to a complex number in the complex plane. It is not recommended you call your variable angle as this will unintentionally shadow over the angle function, and any other code that you create from this point onwards may rely on that actual angle function, and you will get unintended results.
Another minor note
Using i and j as loop variables is not recommended. These letters are reserved for the complex number, and this can produce unintentional results. Take a look at this question and post by Shai here - Using i and j as variables in Matlab. As such, it is suggested you use other variable names instead.
As #rayryeng has successfully answered this question, I would like to turn my post into a more general one by sharing my experience in debugging in Matlab. I hope anyone who somehow managed to find this post get more or less thinking about the habits a good programmer should have.
The question goes like: "How would I do if I get errors?"
Here's an excellent article by Eric in which he lists the rule-of-thumbs when you encounter a bug and wish to get rid of it. It's originally been cited by Stackoverflow, and that's the reason I read it.
If you still get no clue / idea how you can play with your code, see how this person does:
Pin-point the buggy line
(The number should start with 0) Make sure before running a script, you clear out any previously stored variables, including the notorious i and j's (you should never see them in any workspace). If any one is needed for the buggy code to run, save('buggy.mat','importantvar') before clear and load('buggy.mat') after clear.
By doing so, you can isolate your buggy code from anything else, which could have bad influences. For example, in a previously called script, there is a line
double = [2,4,6]; % you should never name a variable `double`
and in the next script, you have
>> e = str2num('uint8(200)')
e =
200
>> double(e)
Index exceeds matrix dimensions.
>>
>> f = single(2.36)
f =
2.3600
>> double(f)
Subscript indices must either be real positive integers or
logicals.
>>
The reason is double is no longer an inbuild function, but a user-defined variable. Too bad to pick up a name carelessly!
....anyway, let's clear the workspace and get rid of double.
>> clear
Read the error message, thoroughly.
Now let's begin with OP's problem. The original code (trimmed) goes like this -
img = imread('peppers.png');
a = img(300,200,:);
b = img(200,300,:);
d = norm(cross(a,b));
.... hence the error
Undefined function 'norm' for input arguments of type 'uint8'.
Error in untitled (line 6)
d = norm(cross(a,b));
Most beginners are only interested in the first line of the error message, which by it alone usually doesn't provide any useful help, or only in the red color, which leads to the famous question "my code does not work!"
But think twice. You still have another 2 lines unread! Error in untitled (line 6) says I'm running a script named untitled and the (first) error lies in line 6, and the code in that line is d = norm(cross(a,b));.
Now, at least you know a little more about your code - "My code d = norm(cross(a,b)); doesn't work!"
Although most likely we may also vote this kind of question to get closed, it's still much much better than a simply "It does not work!".
Now we can pin-point the buggy line
try
% this line will raise an error
d = norm(cross(a,b));
catch err
disp(err.message)
end
Look into the functions
First, make sure the inner function cross works as expected -
>> cross(a,b)
ans(:,:,1) =
0
ans(:,:,2) =
255
ans(:,:,3) =
0
>>
Good. So now we can even narrow down the error to the outer norm.
One more thing to mention. You can always find Mathworks' documentation for any in-build function, by typing "matlab function", such as "matlab norm" in Google (or any other search engine) and clicking on the first result. If you prefer, you can also type in Matlab command window doc _function_ such as doc norm and read the doc in Matlab. It's of course a pleasure of us on Stackoverflow to give you the reference by doing the same thing, but it takes a longer time because a human is, in this aspect, always slower than a search engine.
The error reads Undefined function 'norm' for input arguments of type 'uint8'.. So the input for norm should not be uint8, unsigned 8-bit integer. But what should it be?
% why `norm` "does not work"?
% this line runs perfectly well
norm(cross([1,2,3], [4,5,6]))
% so what is working?
class([1,2,3]) % so `norm` works for `double`
One thing we can do now is convert a and b to double precision. Let's try it now.
% try fixing 'uint8' error
a2 = double(a);
b2 = double(b);
whos a b % now they are double, which `norm` should work for
try
% this line will raise an error
d = norm(cross(a2,b2));
catch err
disp(err.message)
end
Now the error becomes Input must be 2-D.. What's wrong with the input?
% what is "must be 2-D" error?
size(a2) % a2 is 3-D
disp(b2) % b2 is also 3-D
This gives output in command window
ans =
1 1 3
(:,:,1) =
255
(:,:,2) =
150
(:,:,3) =
0
In OP's problem, he/she is trying to calculate something about color difference (to the best of my knowledge) which involves the angle between two color vectors in RGB space. So the vectors are needed. With imread, each pixel of the image is stored as 3 elements in the matrix, first 2 dimension being its physical position, the 3 dimension being RGB channel components. Hence pixel(200,300) with color rgb[255,150,0] is stored by us in variable b wihch is a 3-D vector.
By understanding what we need and what Matlab can do, we can combine these two points into one. We need the norm of the cross product of a and b, while the useful information (the 3 component values) is stored in the 3rd dimension. Matlab can calculate the norm of the cross product of a vector with all its information in the 1st dimension. (Here, "dimension" refers to that of the Matlab variable; a vector with 3 elements in its 1st dimension is physically a 3-D vector).
After thinking twice, we are now able to debug our code - just put all 3 elements into the 1st dimension.
% so we want the 3 elements in the 3rd dimension become in the 1st dim
a3 = squeeze(a2);
b3 = reshape(b2,numel(b2),[]);
try
d = norm(cross(a3,b3));
catch err
disp(err.message)
end
d
Bonus: If by default Matlab treats a 3-D vector as a "1-D array", then most probably the cross function has not been working correctly. Let's make a check -
>> clear
>> a = [1,2,3]
a =
1 2 3
>> b=[4,5,6]
b =
4 5 6
>> cross(a,b)
ans =
-3 6 -3
>>
The result should be the same as the one we can get by calculating by hand.
Now if we put the components into the 3rd dimension of the variable -
>> clear
>> a(1,1,:)=[1,2,3]
a(:,:,1) =
1
a(:,:,2) =
2
a(:,:,3) =
3
>> b(1,1,:)=[4,5,6]
b(:,:,1) =
4
b(:,:,2) =
5
b(:,:,3) =
6
>> cross(a,b)
ans(:,:,1) =
-3
ans(:,:,2) =
6
ans(:,:,3) =
-3
>>
.... seems OK. cross also puts the result in the 3rd dimension. In fact, Mathworks' documentation says
If A and B are vectors, then they must have a length of 3.
If A and B are matrices or multidimensional arrays, then they must
have the same size. In this case, the cross function treats A and B as
collections of three-element vectors. The function calculates the
cross product of corresponding vectors along the first array dimension
whose size equals 3.
At last, one thing is always correct to anyone who wants to do something with programming - be cautious and prudent when writing your code.
So, I'm trying to establish some new stability criteria for my simulations, and this involves a lot of convoluted inequalities. I've worked through the math a few times by hand, and it's very laborous; so, I wanted to figure out a way to automate the process (as I'm trying to find the best integration scheme from a stability perspective). Is there anyway to solve inequalities symbolically in Matlab? Here's what I'm trying to solve. In the following expression, x refers to the gradient of a force function with respect to x, and t is the time step. In general, x < 0 and t > 0:
-(t*x + (2*t^3*x + t^2*x^2 - 2*t*x + 4*t + 1)^(1/2) + 1)/(x*t^2 - 2) < 1
Based on what I've looked at online, this seems to be possible in MuPAD, but using the following code does not give me any valid results:
solve(-(t*x + (2*t^3*x + t^2*x^2 - 2*t*x + 4*t + 1)^(1/2) + 1)/(x*t^2 - 2) < 1, t)
Any idea what I can do to make this work and automate the process?
First, since Wolfram Alpha gives you an answer (that I presume you've checked for correctness), I assume you want to use Matlab to solve other similar problems. However, this is a very non-trivial inequality due to the roots of the polynomials. I haven't been able to get Matlab/MuPAD to do anything with it. As I stated, regular Matlab can solve inequalities and systems of equalities in many cases, e.g., in R2013b
syms x real;
solve(x^3-1>1,x)
Even Mathematica 9 has trouble (the Reduce function can be used instead of it's Solve, but the output is not easy to use).
You can, however, solve for the real roots where x < 0 and t > 0 via
syms x t real;
assume(x<0);
assume(t>0);
f = -(t*x+sqrt(2*t^3*x+t^2*x^2-2*t*x+4*t+1)+1)/(x*t^2-2);
s = solve(f==1,t)
which returns:
s =
-(x + (x*(x - 2))^(1/2))/x
This simplifies to sqrt((x-2)/x)-1. Thus t > sqrt((x-2)/x)-1, one of the bounds provided by Wolfram Alpha. (The other more complicated bound is always less than zero and actually is the condition that ensures that t is real.)
But, do you even need to be solving this problem symbolically? Do you need explicit expressions for the various intervals in terms of all x? If not, this type of problem is probably better suited numeric approaches – either via root solving (e.g., fzero) or minimization (e.g., fmincon).
I am trying to program in Matlab a conditional expectation of the form:
E[x|A<=x<=B] where X~N(u,s^2) (sorry, apparently the math editing here isn't what I am used to)
In Matlab, I have written up the following code:
Y=u+s*(normpdf(A,u,s)-normpdf(B,u,s))/(normcdf(B,u,s)-normcdf(A,u,s))
the problem is that it breaks down at higher values of A and B. For example, let u=0, s=1, A=10 and B=11. Simple logic says the answer should be between 10 and 11, but Matlab gives me back Inf because the denominator essentially becomes 0 while the numerator is 10^-23.
Any suggestions to make the formula give real numbers for all inputs?
One way is to do the numerical integration yourself:
x = linspace(A,B,1000);
trapz(x,x.*normpdf(x,u,s)) / trapz(x,normpdf(x,u,s))
With your example values, this gives 10.0981, and it is pretty fast
Started using MatLab a couple of weeks ago, I don't know much proper syntax / terminology.
I'm trying to use a value in a 3x1 matrix as a multiplier in an equation later.
This is to draw a circle with radius and centre point defined by values input by the user.
I have a pop-up window, the values are input by the user and stored in this 3x1 cell (labelled answer).
How do I use the second value of that matrix, answer(2), in the following equation:
x = 'answer(2)' * cos(theta) + xCentre;
This error message appears:
Error using .*
Matrix dimensions must agree.
Error in Disks (line 40)
x = 'answer(2)'.* cos(theta) + xCentre;
In MATLAB, apostrophes ('') define a string. If the name of your matrix is answer, you can refer to its second value by the command answer(2) as mentioned by #Schorsch. For more infos on vectors and matrices, you can check this site.
In addition to what the previous answer says, its important to understand what exactly you are doing before you do it. Only add the ('') if you are defining a string, which generally occurs when dealing with variables. In your case, you simply have a matrix, which is not a string, but rather a set of numbers. You can simply do answer(2) as aforementioned, because answer(2) calls up the second value in your matrix while 'answer(2)' has you trying to define some variable that does not exist.
the most important thing is truly understanding what you are doing to avoid the basic syntax errors.