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We launched the Discussions area with 6 channels, based on the existing types of content we see today in the MATLAB Central community.
I'm curious which channels you are most interested in participating, or which channels are missing.
Tell us your thoughts here!
Adam Danz
Adam Danz
Last activity on 13 Oct 2023

Approximating π with durations

Over the weekend I came across a pi approximation using durations of years and weeks (image below, Wolfram, eq. 89), accurate to 6 digits using the average Gregorian year (365.2425 days).
Here it is in MATLAB. I divided by 1 week at the end rather than multiplying by its reciprocal because you can’t divide a numeric by a duration in MATLAB (1/week).
weeks = @(n)n*days(7);
piApprox = ((years(13)-weeks(6))/years(13) + weeks(3)) / weeks(1)
% piApprox = 3.141593493469302
Here’s a breakdown
  • The first argument becomes 12.885 yrs / 13 yrs or 0.99115
  • Add three weeks: 0.99115 + 3 weeks = 21.991 days
  • The reduced fraction becomes 21.991 days / 7 days
Now it looks a lot closer to the more familiar approximation for pi 22/7 but with greater precision!
Chen Lin
Chen Lin
Last activity on 16 Oct 2023

The Community Snacks!

I'm in a community conference in Boston today and see what snacks we get! The organizer said it's a coincidence, but it's definitly a good idea to have them in our MathWorks community meetings.
Image Analyst
Image Analyst
Last activity on 3 Oct 2023

The new release is here!

(Sorry - it should be 2023b by now.)
Mike Croucher
Mike Croucher
Last activity on 10 May 2024

spy easter egg

spy
Adam Danz
Adam Danz
Last activity on 6 Mar 2024

To hold or not to hold

I'm curious how the community uses the hold command when creating charts and graphics in MATLAB. In short, hold on sets up the axes to add new objects to the axes while hold off sets up the axes to reset when new objects are added.
When you use hold on do you always follow up with hold off? What's your reasoning on this decision?
Can't wait to discuss this here! I'd love to hear from newbies and experts alike!
Ben Pasquariello
Ben Pasquariello
Last activity on 19 Jan 2024

MATLAB GitHub for Students!

Calling all students! New to MATLAB or need helpful resources? Check out our MATLAB GitHub for Students repository! Find MATLAB examples, videos, cheat sheets, and more!
Visit the repository here: MATLAB GitHub for Students
The way we've solved ODEs in MATLAB has been relatively unchanged at the user-level for decades. Indeed, I consider ode45 to be as iconic as backslash! There have been a few new solvers in recent years -- ode78 and ode89 for example -- and various things have gotten much faster but if you learned how to solve ODEs in MATLAB in 1997 then your knowledge is still applicable today.
In R2023b, there's a completely new framework for solving ODEs and I love it! You might argue that I'm contractually obliged to love it since I'm a MathWorker but I can assure you this is the real thing!
I wrote it up in a tutorial style on The MATLAB Blog https://blogs.mathworks.com/matlab/2023/10/03/the-new-solution-framework-for-ordinary-differential-equations-odes-in-matlab-r2023b/
The new interface makes a lot of things a much easier to do. Its also setting us up for a future where we'll be able to do some very cool algorithmic stuff behind the scenes.
Let me know what you think of the new functionality and what you think MathWorks should be doing next in the area of ODEs.
Rena Berman
Rena Berman
Last activity on 11 Oct 2023

PUZZLE: MATLAB-related word scramble

To solve the puzzle, first unscramble each of the words on the left. Then rearrange the letters in the yellow shaded boxes to complete the sentence on the right.
If you enjoyed this puzzle let me know with a like or in the comments below and I'll post more of them. Please don't post your answer, or any hints, and spoil it for those who come across this puzzle after you!! If you want to check your answer, you can messge me your guess through the link on my profile card (click on my name, Rena Berman, above and then on the envelope icon in the top right corner of the profile card that appears).
Thats the task:
Given a square cell array:
x = {'01', '56'; '234', '789'};
return a single character array:
y = '0123456789'
I wrote a code that passes Test 1 and 2 and one that passes Test 3 but I'm searching a condition so that the code for Test 3 runs when the cell array only contains letters and the one for Test 1 and 2 in every other case. Can somebody help me?
This is my code:
y = []
[a,b]=size(x)
%%TEST 3
delimiter=zeros(1,a)
delimiter(end)=1
delimiter=repmat(delimiter,1,b)
delimiter(end)=''
delimiter=string(delimiter)
y=[]
for i=1:a*b
y = string([y x(i)])
end
y=join(y,delimiter)
y=erase(y,'0')
y=regexprep(y,'1',' ')
%%TEST 1+2
for i=1:a*b
y = string([y x(i)])
y=join(y)
end
y=erase(y,' ' )
Mayla
Mayla
Last activity on 13 Sep 2023

Problem 2022. Find a Pythagorean triple

That's the question: Given four different positive numbers, a, b, c and d, provided in increasing order: a < b < c < d, find if any three of them comprise sides of a right-angled triangle. Return true if they do, otherwise return false .
I wrote this code but it doesn't pass test 7. I don't really understand why it isn't working. Can somebody help me?
function flag = isTherePythagoreanTriple(a, b, c, d)
a2=a^2
b2=b^2
c2=c^2
d2=d^2
format shortG
if a2+b2==c2
flag=true
else if a2+b2==d2
flag=true
else if a2+c2==d2
flag=true
else if c2+b2==d2
flag=true
else flag=false
end
end
end
end
end
Mayla
Mayla
Last activity on 24 Oct 2023

Problem 44952. Find MPG of Lightest Cars

That's the question:
The file cars.mat contains a table named cars with variables Model, MPG, Horsepower, Weight, and Acceleration for several classic cars.
Load the MAT-file. Given an integer N, calculate the output variable mpg.
Output mpg should contain the MPG of the top N lightest cars (by Weight) in a column vector.
I wrote this code and the resulting column vector has the right values but it doesn't pass the tests. What's wrong?
function mpg = sort_cars(N)
load cars.mat
sorted=sortrows(cars,4)
mpg = sorted(1:N,2)
end
I recently have found that I am no longer able to give my difficulty rating for questions on Cody after sucessfully completing a question. This is obviously not a big deal, I was just wondering if this was an issue on my end or if there was some change that I was not aware of.
The option to rate does not pop up after solving a problem, and the rating in general does not even show up anymore when answering questions (though it is visible from problem groups).
The MATLAB Answers community is an invaluable resource for all MATLAB users, providing selfless assistance and support. However, with the emergence of AI-based chatbots, like chatGPT, there may be concerns about the future relevance and utility of the MATLAB Answer community. What are your thoughts?
This is the 6th installment of the wish-list and bug report thread.
This topic is the follow on to the first Wish-list for MATLAB Answer sections and second MATLAB Answers Wish-list #2 (and bug reports). The third started out as New design of the forum - grey on white and the fourth and fifth also grew so large they are slow to load and navigate.
Same idea as the previous ones: one wish (or bug report) per answer, so that people can vote their wishes.
What should you post where?
Wishlist threads (#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6): bugs and feature requests for Matlab Answers
Frustation threads (#1 #2): frustations about usage and capabilities of Matlab itself
Missing feature threads (#1 #2): features that you whish Matlab would have had
Next Gen threads (#1): features that would break compatibility with previous versions, but would be nice to have
@anyone posting a new thread when the last one gets too large (about 50 answers seems a reasonable limit per thread), please update this list in all last threads. (if you don't have editing privileges, just post a comment asking someone to do the edit)
When solving problems over on Cody, I can almost always view all solutions to a problem after submitting a correct solution of my own. Very rarely, however, this is not the case, and I instead get the following message:
This solution is locked. To view this solution, you need to provide a solution of the same size or smaller.
You may solve another problem from Community group to unlock all the solutions to this problem.
If this happens, then again, I can almost always rectify this by submitting a (correct) solution to a different problem (I take it that the Community group is the implicit group of all problems on Cody --- is it?). But sometimes that, too, fails.
So my question is, why? What are the criteria that determine when all solutions are, in fact, unlocked?
(There is a related question here, but I feel the posted answer does not answer the question.)
Simple question: I noticed there's a Modeling & Simulation Challenge Master badge over on Cody, but I can't find the corresponding group. So: where is it? Does it still exist at all?
Error: The server timed out while running and assessing your solution in MATLAB CODY. How do I resolve this? My code is correct. I have run it on PC. But, when i submit in CODY the server throws an error.
I've now seen linear programming questions pop up on Answers recently, with some common failure modes for linprog that people seem not to understand.
One basic failure mode is an infeasible problem. What does this mean, and can it be resolved?
The most common failure mode seems to be a unbounded problem. What does this mean? How can it be avoided/solved/fixed? Is there some direction I can move where the objective obviously grows without bounds towards +/- inf?
Finally, I also see questions where someone wants the tool to produce all possible solutions.
A truly good exposition about linear programming would probably result in a complete course on the subject, and Aswers is limited in how much I can write (plus I'll only have a finite amount of energy to keep writing.) I'll try to answer each sub-question as separate answers, but if someone else would like to offer their own take, feel free to do so as an answer, since it has been many years for me since I learned linear programming.