Description
Timing Computations in Matlab
1
1. At the Matlab command prompt run the command tic, then wait a few seconds and run the command
toc. You should see something like the example output below. Repeat a few times, pausing for different
lengths of time between the two commands. What is happening?
>> tic
>> toc
Elapsed time is 3.065801 seconds.
2. Now load the file m551lab05.m into the Matlab editor, and find and run the section labeled “Timing
Multiplications in Matlab”. (If you don’t know how to run a single section, look for an appropriate
button in Matlab’s toolbar or ask your lab instructor for help.) Matlab’s output should now contain a
table similar to this one.
| n | avg. time |
+——-+———–+
| 10 | 1.077e-04 |
| 20 | 1.840e-05 |
| 40 | 8.951e-04 |
| 80 | 1.859e-04 |
| 160 | 3.420e-04 |
Don’t worry about understanding all the code. It uses tic and toc to time how long it takes Matlab
to multiply two random square matrices of various dimensions. The table column labeled n shows the
dimension of the matrices (10 × 10, 20 × 20, and so on) and the avg. time column reports the length
of time (in seconds) required to multiply two n × n matrices for this value of n. Unfortunately, these
sizes are too small for us to get a good sense of how expensive matrix multiplication is. We’ll fix this
in the next step.
3. Change the definition of mul n so that the table includes the n values 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1600.
(You’ll need to run the section again.)
Variables: mul n
4. Look at the bottom two rows of this table. When n is doubled from 800 to 1600, how is the computational time affected? Is the time doubled? Tripled? Multiplied by some other factor? (This method
of assessing an algorithm’s behavior is not the best. You’ll probably get a different answer from your
classmates, but it should give you a rough idea.)
Q1: How does the computational time change when n is doubled from 800 to 1600?
Methods for Solving Linear Systems
Now let’s consider three different ways for solving Ax = b when
A =
1 3 −2
0 1 −1
2 1 2
and b =
1
−1
10
.
(The solution is x = [1 2 3]T
.)
1. In the M-file, locate the Matlab comments
%%
% Methods for Solving Linear Systems
% define A1 and b1 here
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Directly below these lines, define a variable A1 holding the matrix A and a variable b1 holding the
vector b.
Variables: A1, b1
2. This section of the M-file should now look like
%%
% Methods for Solving Linear Systems
% define A1 and b1 here
A1 = …
b1 = …
M1 = [ A1 b1 ]
S1 = rref(M1)
x1_rref = S1(:,4)
Run the section and observe that the variable x1 rref is assigned the values from the last column of S1,
which contains the computed solution x. Beneath this variable definition, define two other variables,
x1 inv and x1 div. The first should hold the result of multiplying inv(A1) with b1 and the second
should hold the result of A1\b1. After running this section, check in the Matlab command window
that all three solution variables agree.
Variables: x1 inv, x1 div
Comparing the Methods
Now let’s compare the methods on a larger matrix. Select and run the section “Comparing the Methods”
in the M-file. The output should look something like this:
| method | time | error | residual |
+——–+———-+———–+———–+
| rref | 1.36167 | 9.581e-08 | 9.658e-15 |
| inv(A) | not yet implemented |
| A\b | not yet implemented |
Currently, only the solution method based on rref is implemented. The time column reports the time
required to solve a moderately large (200 × 200) linear system. The next two columns report two measures
of the error: the solution error and residual error. These two quantities are defined as follows.
Suppose the true solution to the system Ax = b is the vector xt. When solving the system in Matlab,
we typically won’t get the true solution due to the accumulation of roundoff errors. Instead, we’ll get an
approximate solution xa. One way to measure error is through the difference xt − xa, called the solution
error vector.
The biggest problem with this measure of error is that we typically won’t know the true solution. In this
exercise, the vector b was constructed so that the solution is known, but usually we won’t be looking for an
answer we already know. If we don’t know the true solution, we can still try to understand the error through
the residual error vector, r, defined as r = Axa − b. If xa = xt, the residual will be the zero vector. If xa is
a good approximation, we expect that r should have very small entries.
In either case, the error is a vector. In order to compare methods, we need a way to describe the sizes of
these vectors. We’ll discuss methods for assigning size to vectors in more detail in later lectures on vector
norms. For now, it is enough to know that the third and fourth columns of the Matlab table describe the
sizes of the two error vectors described above. Larger values indicate more error.
1. Locate the following code.
3 Math 551
% solve with rref
tic;
S = rref([A b]);
x_rref=S(:,n+1);
rref_time = toc;
This code computes the solution to the system using rref, and stores the result in x rref and the
solution time in rref time. Create a similar block of code below this one that computes x inv using
multiplication by inv(A) and store the computation time in the variable inv time. Run the section
again and compare the top two table rows. If you have completed this step successfully, the inv-based
method should be much faster than rref, have similar solution error, but larger residual by several
orders of magnitude.
Variables: x inv, inv time
2. Finally, make one more block of code which approximates the solution x using the backslash operator.
Store the result in x div and the computation time in the variable div time.
Variables: x div, div time
3. When you are finished, running the section should print a table comparing computing times and errors
among all three methods.
Q2: How do the methods compare in computing time?
Q3: How do the methods compare in solution error?
Q4: How do the methods compare in residual error?
Q5: Which method do you think is “best” for this system and why?
4 Math 551
