What type of (probably syntactic) mistake am I making when using a generic function on an array for plotting? - matlab

Question

I am trying to plot a geodesic on a 3D surface (tractrix) with Matlab. This worked for me in the past when I didn't need to parametrize the surface (see here). However, the tractrix called for parameterization, chain rule differentiation, and collection of u,v,x,y and f(x,y) values.
After many mistakes I think that I'm getting the right values for x = f1(u,v) and y = f2(u,v) describing a spiral right at the base of the surface:
What I can't understand is why the z value or height of the 3D plot of the curve is consistently zero, when I'm applying the same mathematical formula that allowed me to plot the surface in the first place, ie. f = #(x,y) a.* (y - tanh(y)) .
Here is the code, which runs without any errors on Octave. I'm typing a special note in upper case on the crucial calls. Also note that I have restricted the number of geodesic lines to 1 to decrease the execution time.
a = 0.3;
u = 0:0.1:(2 * pi);
v = 0:0.1:5;
[X,Y] = meshgrid(u,v);
% NOTE THAT THESE FORMULAS RESULT IN A SUCCESSFUL PLOT OF THE SURFACE:
x = a.* cos(X) ./ cosh(Y);
y = a.* sin(X) ./ cosh(Y);
z = a.* (Y - tanh(Y));
h = surf(x,y,z);
zlim([0, 1.2]);
set(h,'edgecolor','none')
colormap summer
hold on
% THESE ARE THE GENERIC FUNCTIONS (f) WHICH DON'T SEEM TO WORK AT THE END:
f = #(x,y) a.* (y - tanh(y));
f1 = #(u,v) a.* cos(u) ./ cosh(v);
f2 = #(u,v) a.* sin(u) ./ cosh(v);
dfdu = #(u,v) ((f(f1(u,v)+eps, f2(u,v)) - f(f1(u,v) - eps, f2(u,v)))/(2 * eps) .*
(f1(u+eps,v)-f1(u-eps,v))/(2*eps) +
(f(f1(u,v), f2(u,v)+eps) - f(f1(u,v), f2(u,v)-eps))/(2 * eps) .*
(f2(u+eps,v)-f2(u-eps,v))/(2*eps));
dfdv = #(u,v) ((f(f1(u,v)+eps, f2(u,v)) - f(f1(u,v) - eps, f2(u,v)))/(2 * eps) .*
(f1(u,v+eps)-f1(u,v-eps))/(2*eps) +
(f(f1(u,v), f2(u,v)+eps) - f(f1(u,v), f2(u,v)-eps))/(2 * eps) .*
(f2(u,v+eps)-f2(u,v-eps))/(2*eps));
% Normal vector to the surface:
N = #(u,v) [- dfdu(u,v), - dfdv(u,v), 1]; % Normal vec to surface # any pt.
% Some colors to draw the lines:
C = {'k','r','g','y','m','c'};
for s = 1:1 % No. of lines to be plotted.
% Starting points:
u0 = [0, u(length(u))];
v0 = [0, v(length(v))];
du0 = 0.001;
dv0 = 0.001;
step_size = 0.00005; % Will determine the progression rate from pt to pt.
eta = step_size / sqrt(du0^2 + dv0^2); % Normalization.
eps = 0.0001; % Epsilon
max_num_iter = 100000; % Number of dots in each line.
% Semi-empty vectors to collect results:
U = [[u0(s), u0(s) + eta*du0], zeros(1,max_num_iter - 2)];
V = [[v0(s), v0(s) + eta*dv0], zeros(1,max_num_iter - 2)];
for i = 2:(max_num_iter - 1) % Creating the geodesic:
ut = U(i);
vt = V(i);
xt = f1(ut,vt);
yt = f2(ut,vt);
ft = f(xt,yt);
utm1 = U(i - 1);
vtm1 = V(i - 1);
xtm1 = f1(utm1,vtm1);
ytm1 = f2(utm1,vtm1);
ftm1 = f(xtm1,ytm1);
usymp = ut + (ut - utm1);
vsymp = vt + (vt - vtm1);
xsymp = f1(usymp,vsymp);
ysymp = f2(usymp,vsymp);
fsymp = ft + (ft - ftm1);
df = fsymp - f(xsymp,ysymp); % Is the surface changing? How much?
n = N(ut,vt); % Normal vector at point t
gamma = df * n(3); % Scalar x change f x z value of N
xtp1 = xsymp - gamma * n(1); % Gamma to modulate incre. x & y.
ytp1 = ysymp - gamma * n(2);
U(i + 1) = usymp - gamma * n(1);;
V(i + 1) = vsymp - gamma * n(2);;
end
% THE PROBLEM! f(f1(U,V),f2(U,V)) below YIELDS ALL ZEROS!!! The expected values are between 0 and 1.2.
P = [f1(U,V); f2(U,V); f(f1(U,V),f2(U,V))]; % Compiling results into a matrix.
units = 35; % Determines speed (smaller, faster)
packet = floor(size(P,2)/units);
P = P(:,1: packet * units);
for k = 1:packet:(packet * units)
hold on
plot3(P(1, k:(k+packet-1)), P(2,(k:(k+packet-1))), P(3,(k:(k+packet-1))),
'.', 'MarkerSize', 5,'color',C{s})
drawnow
end
end

Answer 1

The answer is to Cris Luengo's credit, who noticed that the upper-case assigned to the variable Y, used for the calculation of the height of the curve z, was indeed in the parametrization space u,v as intended, and not in the manifold x,y! I don't use Matlab/Octave other than for occasional simulations, and I was trying every other syntactical permutation I could think of without realizing that f fed directly from v (as intended). I changed now the names of the different variables to make it cleaner.
Here is the revised code:
a = 0.3;
u = 0:0.1:(3 * pi);
v = 0:0.1:5;
[U,V] = meshgrid(u,v);
x = a.* cos(U) ./ cosh(V);
y = a.* sin(U) ./ cosh(V);
z = a.* (V - tanh(V));
h = surf(x,y,z);
zlim([0, 1.2]);
set(h,'edgecolor','none')
colormap summer
hold on
f = #(x,y) a.* (y - tanh(y));
f1 = #(u,v) a.* cos(u) ./ cosh(v);
f2 = #(u,v) a.* sin(u) ./ cosh(v);
dfdu = #(u,v) ((f(f1(u,v)+eps, f2(u,v)) - f(f1(u,v) - eps, f2(u,v)))/(2 * eps) .*
(f1(u+eps,v)-f1(u-eps,v))/(2*eps) +
(f(f1(u,v), f2(u,v)+eps) - f(f1(u,v), f2(u,v)-eps))/(2 * eps) .*
(f2(u+eps,v)-f2(u-eps,v))/(2*eps));
dfdv = #(u,v) ((f(f1(u,v)+eps, f2(u,v)) - f(f1(u,v) - eps, f2(u,v)))/(2 * eps) .*
(f1(u,v+eps)-f1(u,v-eps))/(2*eps) +
(f(f1(u,v), f2(u,v)+eps) - f(f1(u,v), f2(u,v)-eps))/(2 * eps) .*
(f2(u,v+eps)-f2(u,v-eps))/(2*eps));
% Normal vector to the surface:
N = #(u,v) [- dfdu(u,v), - dfdv(u,v), 1]; % Normal vec to surface # any pt.
% Some colors to draw the lines:
C = {'y','r','k','m','w',[0.8 0.8 1]}; % Color scheme
for s = 1:6 % No. of lines to be plotted.
% Starting points:
u0 = [0, -pi/2, 2*pi, 4*pi/3, pi/4, pi];
v0 = [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0];
du0 = [0, -0.0001, 0.001, - 0.001, 0.001, -0.01];
dv0 = [0.1, 0.01, 0.001, 0.001, 0.0005, 0.01];
step_size = 0.00005; % Will determine the progression rate from pt to pt.
eta = step_size / sqrt(du0(s)^2 + dv0(s)^2); % Normalization.
eps = 0.0001; % Epsilon
max_num_iter = 180000; % Number of dots in each line.
% Semi-empty vectors to collect results:
Uc = [[u0(s), u0(s) + eta*du0(s)], zeros(1,max_num_iter - 2)];
Vc = [[v0(s), v0(s) + eta*dv0(s)], zeros(1,max_num_iter - 2)];
for i = 2:(max_num_iter - 1) % Creating the geodesic:
ut = Uc(i);
vt = Vc(i);
xt = f1(ut,vt);
yt = f2(ut,vt);
ft = f(xt,yt);
utm1 = Uc(i - 1);
vtm1 = Vc(i - 1);
xtm1 = f1(utm1,vtm1);
ytm1 = f2(utm1,vtm1);
ftm1 = f(xtm1,ytm1);
usymp = ut + (ut - utm1);
vsymp = vt + (vt - vtm1);
xsymp = f1(usymp,vsymp);
ysymp = f2(usymp,vsymp);
fsymp = ft + (ft - ftm1);
df = fsymp - f(xsymp,ysymp); % Is the surface changing? How much?
n = N(ut,vt); % Normal vector at point t
gamma = df * n(3); % Scalar x change f x z value of N
xtp1 = xsymp - gamma * n(1); % Gamma to modulate incre. x & y.
ytp1 = ysymp - gamma * n(2);
Uc(i + 1) = usymp - gamma * n(1);;
Vc(i + 1) = vsymp - gamma * n(2);;
end
x = f1(Uc,Vc);
y = f2(Uc,Vc);
P = [x; y; f(Uc,Vc)]; % Compiling results into a matrix.
units = 35; % Determines speed (smaller, faster)
packet = floor(size(P,2)/units);
P = P(:,1: packet * units);
for k = 1:packet:(packet * units)
hold on
plot3(P(1, k:(k+packet-1)), P(2,(k:(k+packet-1))), P(3,(k:(k+packet-1))),
'.', 'MarkerSize', 5,'color',C{s})
drawnow
end
end