Steps to obtain the install disk for MATLAB (for UNC Students) follows:
1. Go to http://its.unc.edu/Support/softwareacquisition/availablesoftware/index.htm
2. From the drop-down list on this page, select the "Mathematics" category, and then click "Matlab"
3. Sign in with your Onyen and password, this will take you to the UNC MATLAB page.
4. Select ''Placing an order", and click on the student's link. The student online order form will appear, complete this. You will receive an email when your copy of MATLAB is ready for pickup at the undergraduate library basement (ITS Software Acquisition Office).
5. Installation instructions and Personal License Password are provided in the UNC MATLAB page above in step 3.
Important note: Make sure to use your UNC e-mail address to create your Mathworks account. You will not be able to activate MATLAB post-install otherwise.
Click here to view an introductory tutorial to MATLAB that I wrote some time ago. This is not comprehensive by any means. You are strongly encouraged to use the 'Help' menu in MATLAB to search for commands to perform the task-in-hand.
Here are the links to download dfield7.m & pplane8.m for visualization of direction fields, phase-plane portraits, and solution curves for ODEs and 2-D systems of ODEs:
DFIELD: click here
PPLANE: click here
Note: To download and execute these codes on your computer, follow these steps:
(a) right click the appropriate link (dfield or pplane) in a PC and choose "Save Target As" option. If you use a Mac, hold the ctrl key down and click the link, and then choose the "Save Linked File As" option)
(b) select the path on your hard drive where you want to save the script to, and remember to note this down for future reference
(c) open the file in MATLAB using "File/Open/" menu in the command window and pointing to the correct directory selected in the previous step (b)
(d) run the script using "Debug/Run ________.m" menu in the editor window with the script, and allow MATLAB to change the working directory to the path containing the m-file (if a dialog window opens after clicking run asking what to do)
In addition, it is possible to run these scripts on a computer without MATLAB and directly from the web as a java applet. The link for that is (click "DFIELD2005.10" or "PPLANE2005.10" as required): http://math.rice.edu/~dfield/dfpp.html.
dfield7.m & pplane8.m as well as the java applets are available to use in the public domain, courtesy of Professor John C. Polking, Department of Mathematics, Rice University.
