MATLAB Optimization Techniques

CHAPTER 5

Optimization Using Symbolic Computation

5.1 Symbolic Equations and Systems of Equations

The following commands can be used for the solution of symbolic equations and systems of equations:

solve(‘equation’, ‘x’)	Solves the equation in the variable x.
syms x; solve(equation,x)	Solves the equation in the variable x.
solve('e1,e2,…,en', 'x1,x2,…,xn')	Solves the system of equations e1,…, en in the variables x1, ... , xn.
syms x1 x2… xn; solve(e1,e2,…,en, x1,x2,…,xn)	Solve the system of equations e1,…, en in the variables x1, … , xn.

As a first example we solve the equation 3ax − 7x² + x³ = 0 in terms of x, where a is a parameter.

>> solve('3*a*x-7*x^2+x^3=0','x') ...