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Re: symbolic solver question
Posted:
Dec 12, 2012 9:22 AM
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"Paul Mennen" <nospam@mennen.org> wrote in message
news:ka9ob8$r68$1@newscl01ah.mathworks.com...
> Here is my matlab session:
>
>>> syms s a A
>>> A = [0 0 -2*a a; 0 0 a -2*a; 1 0 0 0; 0 1 0 0];
>>> eig(A)
>
> ans =
>
> (-a)^(1/2)
> -(-a)^(1/2)
> 3^(1/2)*(-a)^(1/2)
> -3^(1/2)*(-a)^(1/2)
>
> OK, so far so good.
> I asked for the eigenvalues of the matrix A and it shows the 4 eigenvalues
> that I expected. So then for the sake of understanding the solver, I
> though I would try to compute the eigenvalues by setting the determinant
> of (sI-A) equal to zero:
>
>>> solve('det(s*eye(4)-A) = 0',s)
> Warning: Explicit solution could not be found.
>
> Why doesn't this work?
Because you're passing a string into SOLVE and so it can't "see" the
variable A you've defined in your workspace. It's treating it as a general
symbolic value. Depending on the version of MATLAB you're using, either:
solve(det(s*eye(4)-A)==0, s)
or:
solve(det(s*eye(4)-A), s)
should work. I would recommend using EIG instead of this SOLVE call
particularly if you're going to work with larger matrices.
--
Steve Lord
slord@mathworks.com
To contact Technical Support use the Contact Us link on
http://www.mathworks.com
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