8.4: Interactive Mode
- Page ID
- 9999
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In command mode, MATLAB displays a prompt (\(\gg\)) and waits for your input. You may type any legal mathematical expression for immediate evaluation. Try the following three examples (press “enter” or “return” at the end of each line):
≫ 2+2 ≫ 5^2 ≫ 2*sin(pi/4)
The variablepi= 3.14 is built into MATLAB, as are thesinfunction and hundreds of other functions. When you entered each of the preceding lines, MATLAB stored the results in a variable calledans for answer. The value ofans was then displayed. The last line should have produced the square root of 2. We can manipulateans to find out
≫ ans^2
The new answer is very close to 2, as expected. Let's see what the roundoff error is:
≫ ans-2