1. About Matlab
Matlab (Matrix Laboratory) is interactive software which has been used recently in various areas of engineering and scientific applications. Matlab is relatively easy to learn. It is written on an intuitive basis and it does not require in-depth knowledge of operational principles of computer programming like compiling and liking in most other programming languages. The interactive mode of Matlab may reduce computational speed in some applications.
The power of Matlab is represented by the length and simplicity of the code. One page of Matlab code may be equivalent to many pages of other computer language source codes. Numerical calculation in Matlab uses collections of well-written scientific/mathematical subroutines. Additionally, Matlab provides Graphical User Interface (GUI) as well as three-dimensional graphical animation.
In general, Matlab is a useful tool for vector and matrix manipulations because the majority of the engineering systems are represented by matrix and vector equations. The finite element method is a well-defined candidate for which Matlab can be very useful as a solution tool. Matrix and vector manipulations are essential parts in the method. Matlab provides a help menu so that we can type the help command when we need help to figure out how a command works. The help utility is quite convenient for both beginners and experts.
2. Vector and Matrix Manipulation
Once we get into Matlab, we meet a prompt >> called the Matab prompt. This prompt receives a user command and process it providing the output on the next line.