Chapter 6 - Matrices and Arrays

Abstract

The objectives of this chapter are to introduce you to ways of creating matrices, matrix operations, character strings and facilities for handling them. We also demonstrate some uses of matrices by presenting examples in population dynamics, Markov processes and linear systems of equations. We also introduce MATLAB's sparse matrix facilities. The word matrix has two distinct meanings in MATLAB. One is an arrangement of data in rows and columns, e.g., a table. The second is a mathematical object, for which particular mathematical operations are defined, e.g., matrix multiplication. The chapter by looking at matrices in the first sense, summarizing and extending what we learned about them in Chapter 2. We then go on to look briefly at the mathematical operations on matrices as mathematical objects like vectors (which are particular types of matrices). Vector operations can also be performed on the latter objects, i.e., vectors.