To accompany Partial Differential Equations: Analytical and Numerical Methods, 2nd edition by Mark S. Gockenbach (SIAM, 2010). 136 pages.The purpose of this document is to explain the features of MATLAB that are useful for applying the techniques presented in my textbook. This really is a tutorial (not a reference), meant to be read and used in parallel with the textbook. For this reason, I have structured the tutorial to have the same chapter and sections titles as the book. However, the purpose of the sections of this document is not to re-explain the material in the text; rather, it is to present the capabilities of MATLAB as they are needed by someone studying the text.
Therefore, for example, in Section 2.1, "Heat flow in a bar; Fourier's Law", I do not explain any physics or modeling. (The physics and modeling are found in the text.) Instead, I explain the MATLAB command for integration, because Section 2.1 is the first place in the text where the student is asked to integrate a function. Because of this style of organization, some parts of the text have no counterpart in this tutorial.
For example, there is no Chapter 7, because, by the time you have worked through the first six chapters of the tutorial, you have learned all of the capabilities of MATLAB that you need to address the material in Chapter 7 of the text. For the same reason, you will see that some individual sections are missing; Chapter 5, for example, begins with Section 5.2.
I should point out that my purpose is writing this tutorial is not to show you how to solve the problems in the text; rather, it is to give you the tools to solve them. Therefore, I do not give you a worked-out example of every problem type-if I did, your "studying" could degenerate to simply looking for an example, copying it, and making a few changes. At crucial points, I do provide some complete examples, since I see no other way to illustrate the power of MATLAB than in context. However, there is still plenty for you to figure out for yourself!
