1 Introduction MATLAB is a programming language and data visualization software package which is es- pecially effective in signal processing and systems analysis. This document is a brief in- troduction to MAtLAB that focuses on those features that are of particular importance in 6.003. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with Project Athena, has an Athena account and has little or no experience with MATLAB. Other MATLAB help is available through Athena consulting which offers a number of more tutorial handouts and short courses(ext 3-4435 ), on-line consulting(type olc at the Athena prompt), and Athena on-line help(type help at the Athena prompt). There are a number of books available that describe MAT LAB. For example, Engineering Problem Solving with Matlab, by D. M. Etter, published by Prentice-Hall(1997) and Mastering MATLAB, by Hanselman and Littlefield, published by Prentice-Hall(1996). The paperback MATLAB Primer by K. Sigmon, published by CRC Press(1994)is a handy summary of MATLAB instructions. Further information about MATLAB can be found at the web page of the vendor(The Math Works, Inc ) whose URL ishttp://www.mathworks.com.FulldocumentationcanbepurchasedbycontactingThe Math Works 2 Getting Started On Project Athena, MATLAB can be accessed directly from the Dashboard(menu at the top of the screen after you login to Project Athena) by using the hierarchical menu and navigating as follows Numerical/ Math//Analysis and Plotting//MATLAB MATLAB will then open a command window which contains the MATLAB prompt>> MATLAB contains a number of useful commands that are similar to uniX commands g, 'ls,, 'pwd, and cd. These are handy for listing MATLAB's working directory, checking the path to the working directory, and changing the working directory. matlaB checks for MATLAB files in certain directories which are controlled by the command path. The command pathlists the directories in MATLAB's search path. A new directory can be appended or prepended to MATLAB's search path with the command path(path, p)or path(p, path) where p is some new directory, for example, containing functions written by the There is specially designed software available which can also be accessed from the project Athena Dashboard by navigating as follows Courseware//Electrical Engineering and Computer Science// 6.003 Signals and Systems //MATLAB These commands display a graphical user interface for exploring several important topics in 6.003. The same software is used in lecture demonstrations Revisions of this document will be posted on the 6.003 homepage on the web1 Introduction MATLAB is a programming language and data visualization software package which is es￾pecially effective in signal processing and systems analysis. This document is a brief in￾troduction to MATLAB that focuses on those features that are of particular importance in 6.003.1 It is assumed that the reader is familiar with Project Athena, has an Athena account, and has little or no experience with MATLAB. Other MATLAB help is available through Athena consulting which offers a number of more tutorial handouts and short courses (ext. 3-4435), on-line consulting (type olc at the Athena prompt), and Athena on-line help (type help at the Athena prompt). There are a number of books available that describe MAT￾LAB. For example, Engineering Problem Solving with Matlab, by D. M. Etter, published by Prentice-Hall (1997) and Mastering MATLAB, by Hanselman and Littlefield, published by Prentice-Hall (1996). The paperback MATLAB Primer by K. Sigmon, published by CRC Press (1994) is a handy summary of MATLAB instructions. Further information about MATLAB can be found at the web page of the vendor (The MathWorks, Inc.) whose URL is http://www.mathworks.com. Full documentation can be purchased by contacting The MathWorks. 2 Getting Started On Project Athena, MATLAB can be accessed directly from the Dashboard (menu at the top of the screen after you login to Project Athena) by using the hierarchical menu and navigating as follows: Numerical/Math//Analysis and Plotting//MATLAB. MATLAB will then open a command window which contains the MATLAB prompt ‘>>’. MATLAB contains a number of useful commands that are similar to UNIX commands, e.g., ‘ls’, ‘pwd’, and ‘cd’. These are handy for listing MATLAB’s working directory, checking the path to the working directory, and changing the working directory. MATLAB checks for MATLAB files in certain directories which are controlled by the command ‘path’. The command ‘path’ lists the directories in MATLAB’s search path. A new directory can be appended or prepended to MATLAB’s search path with the command path(path,p) or path(p,path) where p is some new directory, for example, containing functions written by the user. There is specially designed software available which can also be accessed from the Project Athena Dashboard by navigating as follows: Courseware//Electrical Engineering and Computer Science// 6.003 Signals and Systems//MATLAB. These commands display a graphical user interface for exploring several important topics in 6.003. The same software is used in lecture demonstrations. 1Revisions of this document will be posted on the 6.003 homepage on the web. 3