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Self-check exercise: Basic Plotting

    The following exercises are taken from the manuscript "Insight Through Computing: A Matlab Introduction to Computational Science Engineering" by Van Loan and Fan.

  1. Experiment with different line-marker format in this script. In the command

      plot(x,y,[L R],[0 0], ':')

    the first set of data, x and y, are plotted using the default format — solid line — while the second set of data, the points (L,0) and (R,0), are plotted according to the format specification ':' — a dotted line. The format specificaton is enclosed in quotation marks. Here are a few example format specifications:

    • '-' for solid line,
    • '.' for a dot at each data point point,
    • 'r' for red
    • 'g-' for a green solid line,
    • 'b+:' for a blue dotted line with a cross marking each data each point, etc.

    Type help plot in MATLAB's Command Window to see a complete list of options.

  2. Modify the same script to use the colon expression instead of the built-in function linspace to create the vector of x values. Recall that linspace allows you to specify the number of points while the colon expression allows you to specify the increment between points. Write a colon expression that matches the linspace function call exactly.

  3. Write a script that displays in a single figure window a plot of the functions x, x2, x3, x4, and x5 across the interval [0,1].