CODEWITHSUNDEEP
matlabfunctionintersection
JM Osorio
JM Osorio

Reputation: 23

Trying to find the point when two functions differ from each other a 5% with Matlab

As I've written in the title, I'm trying to find the exact distance (dimensionless distance in this case) when two functions start to differ from each other a 5% of the Y-axis. The two functions intersect at the value of 1 in the X-axis and I need to find the described distance before the intersection, not after (i.e., it must be less than 1). I've written a Matlab code for you to see the shape of the functions and the following calculations which I'm trying to make them work but they don't, I don't know why. "Explicit solution could not be found".

I don't know if I explained it clearly. Please let me know if you need a more detailed explanation.

I hope you can throw some light in this issue.

Thank you so much in advanced.

r=0:0.001:1.2;
ro=0.335;
rt=r./ro;
De=0.3534;
k=2.8552;
B=(2*k/De)^0.5;
Fm=2.*De.*B.*ro.*[1-exp(B.*ro.*(1-rt))].*exp(B.*ro.*(1-rt));
A=5;
b=2.2347;
C=167.4692;
Ftt=(C.*(exp(-b.*rt).*((b.^6.*rt.^5)./120 + (b.^5.*rt.^4)./24 + (b.^4.*rt.^3)./6 +         (b.^3.*rt.^2)./2 + b.^2.*rt + b) - b.*exp(-b.*rt).*((b.^6.*rt.^6)./720 + (b.^5.*rt.^5)./120 + (b.^4.*rt.^4)./24 + (b.^3.*rt.^3)./6 + (b.^2.*rt.^2)./2 + b.*rt + 1)))./rt.^6 - (6.*C.*(exp(-b.*rt).*((b.^6.*rt.^6)./720 + (b.^5.*rt.^5)./120 + (b.^4.*rt.^4)./24 + (b.^3.*rt.^3)./6 + (b.^2.*rt.^2)./2 + b.*rt + 1) - 1))./rt.^7 - A.*b.*exp(-b.*rt);
plot(rt,-Fm,'red')
axis([0 2 -1 3])
xlabel('Dimensionless distance')
ylabel('Force, -dU/dr')
hold on
plot(rt,-Ftt,'green')
clear rt
syms rt
%assume(0<rt<1)
r1=solve((Fm-Ftt)/Ftt==0.05,rt)
r2=solve((Ftt-Fm)/Fm==0.05,rt)

Upvotes: 2

Views: 82

Answers (1)

rayryeng
rayryeng

Reputation: 104503

Welcome to the crux of floating point data. The reason why is because for the values of r that you are providing, the exact solution of 0.05 may be in between two of the values in your r array and so you won't be able to get an exact solution. Also, FWIW, your equation may never generate a solution of 0.05, which is why you're getting that error too. Either way, doing that explicit solve on floating point data is never recommended, unless you know very well how your data are shaped and what values you expect for the output of the function you're applying the data to.

As such, it's always recommended that you find the nearest value that satisfies your condition. As such, you should do something like this: 

[~,ind] = min(abs((Fm-Ftt)./Ftt - 0.05)); 
r1 = r(ind);

The first line will find the nearest location in your r array that satisfies the 5% criterion. The next line of code will then give you the value that is in your r array that satisfies this. You can do the same with r2 by:

[~,ind2] = min(abs((Ftt-Fm)./Fm - 0.05)); 
r2 = r(ind2);

What the above code is basically doing is that it is trying to find at what point in your array would the difference between your data and 5% be 0. In other words, which point in your r array would be close enough to make the above relation equal to 0, or essentially when it is as close to 5% as possible.

If you want to improve this, you can always change the step size of r... perhaps make it 0.00001 or something. However, the smaller the step size, the larger your array and you'll eventually run out of memory!

Upvotes: 2

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