I'm not understanding why this error occurs: Error: Unexpected MATLAB expression

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What i entered in console and received
>> newton(x^3-x,3x^2-1,-1,1e-5,20)
??? newton(x^3-x,3x^2-1,-1,1e-5,20)
|
Error: Unexpected MATLAB expression.
function used is as follows
function [ x, ex ] = newton( f, df, x0, tol, nmax )
%
% NEWTON Newton's Method
% Newton's method for finding successively better approximations to the
% zeroes of a real-valued function.
%
% Input:
% f - input funtion
% df - derived input function
% x0 - inicial aproximation
% tol - tolerance
% nmax - maximum number of iterations
%
% Output:
% x - aproximation to root
% ex - error estimate
%
% Example:
% [ x, ex ] = newton( 'exp(x)+x', 'exp(x)+1', 0, 0.5*10^-5, 10 )
if nargin == 3
tol = 1e-4;
nmax = 1e1;
elseif nargin == 4
nmax = 1e1;
elseif nargin ~= 5
error('newton: invalid input parameters');
end
f = inline(f);
df = inline(df);
x(1) = x0 - (f(x0)/df(x0));
ex(1) = abs(x(1)-x0);
k = 2;
while (ex(k-1) >= tol) && (k <= nmax)
x(k) = x(k-1) - (f(x(k-1))/df(x(k-1)));
ex(k) = abs(x(k)-x(k-1));
k = k+1;
end
end

Accepted Answer

Jan
Jan on 17 Oct 2013
Edited: Jan on 17 Oct 2013
You are missing a multiplication operator:
Try
newton(x^3-x,3 * x^2-1,-1,1e-5,20)
^
inserted
Edit: I just noticed, that the function header of newton obviously expects strings ast input arguments. Like in the example given:
[ x, ex ] = newton( 'exp(x)+x', 'exp(x)+1', 0, 0.5*10^-5, 10 )
You will have to alter your function call accordingly. However, the Matlab error resulted from the missing multiplication operator.

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