MATLAB Demystified
| 2007-04-06 00:00:00 | | 0 | MATLAB
Need to Learn MATLAB? Problem SOLVED!
Get started using MATLAB right away with help from this hands-on guide. MATLAB Demystified offers an effective and enlightening method for learning how to get the most out this powerful computational mathematics tool.
Using an easy-to-follow format, this book explains the basics of MATLAB up front. You'll find out how to plot functions, solve algebraic equations, and compute integrals. You'll also learn how to solve differential equations, generate numerical solutions of ODEs, and work with special functions. Packed with hundreds of sample equations and explained solutions, and featuring end-of-chapter quizzes and a final exam, this book will teach you MATLAB essentials in no time at all.
This self-teaching guide offers:The quickest way to get up and running on MATLABHundreds of worked examples with solutionsCoverage of MATLAB 7A quiz at the end of each chapter to reinforce learning and pinpoint weaknessesA final exam at the end of the bookA time-saving approach to performing better on homework or on the jobSimple enough for a beginner, but challenging enough for an advanced user, MATLAB Demystified is your shortcut to computational precision.
User review
Only decent content, poor editing
Another review pointed out the poor editing with this book. For instance, chapter 2 includes a phrase `we have seen how to create a row vector ,,. using the linspace command` but no reference to the linspace command is ever made. The text also references another MATLAB book, but does not call it out. It almost make me think this is a stripped down text of a larger work, but that is supposition on my part.
The text in the examples is sometimes wrong (y=x^2 will not often work - you need to type y=x.^2) although the book will eventually point out how to enter the correct syntax. I wish it would do this before showing the wrong text to type, though.
All in all, this book is not worth the time needed to detangle it. It is incomplete and needs a new editing pass to make it worthwhile.
User review
Good for the beginner
This book is great for the beginner. It assumes you know nothing, but because of that, once you learn the basics, it quickly becomes ineffective at teaching the advanced usages. It is great at starting one off down the right path and the mathworks website becomes useful for looking up more advanced or specialized commands.
User review
Complete, simple and objective
If we could classify books intended to teach software in two categories- those focused on the tricks of the latest version and those ones centered in the contextualized applications - MATLAB Demystified would belong to the first class of books. A nice `direct to the point` approach on how to model, code and simulate real life situations. Accessible for all people interested in programming computers easily.
User review
Book better suited for Student Edition of Matlab
First three chapters, The MATLAB Environment, Vectors and Matrices and Plotting and Graphics, provide a good introduction to Matlab. However, author does not mention that the Symbolic Toolbox is required to work the examples in Chapter 5, Solving Algebraic Equations and other Symbolic Tools, Chapter 6. Basic Symbolic Calculus and Differential Equations, Chapter 8 Integration, and Chapter 9 Transforms. It appears the author assumed the only persons who would buy the book were college students who bought the Student edition of Matlab. Persons who only have access to the commercial version of Matlab will not be able to work the examples in Chapters 5, 6, 8, and 9.
User review
OK introduction to Matlab but plagued by typos and other problems
Overall this book is a reasonable introduction to Matlab 7.x but it tends to drag in places and seem rushed in others. Also, there are enough typographical errors in the examples to make it difficult to arrive at the expected results especially if one is a beginner. For example, the solution to one of the quiz questions in chapter 5 requires the use of the `eval` function which was never introduced in the book.
Oddly one of the most powerful features of Matlab, programming, is pasted onto the end of the statistics chapter as a brief introduction whereas it should have it's own chapter and covered in a lot more detail. Also, there are chapters on transforms and curve fitting but strangely no mention of time series.
Lastly, quizzes at the end of each chapter often leave out key material introduced in that chapter. Also, the final exam at the end of the book leaves out half of the later chapters.
This is an OK book if you want to master the basics of Matlab quickly but on it's own it's not enough. I would recommend the much better Getting Started with MATLAB 7: A Quick Introduction for Scientists and Engineers instead.