Undefined function '' for input arguments of type 'char'

Question

I'm learning how to solve systems of ODEs in matlab, but somehow I can't get the examples to work.
I'm trying to follow the section "Represent Numeric Approximations as Functions" at http://www.mathworks.com/help/symbolic/mupad_ug/solve-equations-numerically.html#math-solving-equations-numerically-diff-equations

but when I enter Line 1

IVP := {y''(t) = t*y'(t), y(0) = 0, y'(0) = 1/3}:

it throws the error

Undefined function 'IVP' for input arguments of type 'char'.

any idea what's going on here? Do i need some extra libraries or something? I'm pretty new to matlab.

Answer 1

That is MuPAD syntax. You need to have MuPAD notebook if you want to do that in MATLAB. To see if you have it, in MATLAB, at the top, go to your APPS tab, then select MuPAD Notebook to start a new notebook, like so:

Once you select the MuPad Notebook option, then go ahead and follow that tutorial that you linked us to. Here's a reference to start a new Notebook for more details. http://www.mathworks.com/help/symbolic/create-mupad-notebooks-and-program-files.html

This is what I get when I run your IVP example. I type in the command, push Enter, then type in IVP and push Enter to echo the output.

As you can see, the syntax works there. If you want to get started on MuPAD, it is a different syntax compared to MATLAB all together, so you should start here for some basic fundamentals: http://www.mathworks.com/help/symbolic/mupad-language-fundamentals.html

Good luck!