Learning how to use functions

Hey, I'm trying to learn how to use functions to solve a problem.

A simply supported beam is loaded as shown in the figure below.

Here is what I have in my Main file:

clc,clear 
v=[(5/2) 5 3 30exp(6) (16/625) 30];
[V]=deflection_Hilderbrandt(v);
V

and my function file:

function [V]=deflection_Hilderbrandt(x,L,a,E,I,P)
b=L-a

if 0<=x && a>=x
    V=((P*b/(6*E*I*L))*(-L^(2)+b^(2))*x+x^(3))
else a<x && L>=x
    V=((P*b/(6*E*I*L))*(-L^(2)+b^(2))*x+x^(3)-(L/b)*(x-a)^(3))
end
fprintf('The value of vertical deflection V is %f \n')
end

I am getting an error in the main file as such:

Line 2: invalid floating point constant

Line2: parse error at ']' :usage might be invalid MATLAB syntax

Thank you for the help

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

One problem is that there needs to be a multiplication operator between ‘30’ and ‘exp(6)’.

The other problem is that the data need to be separated into thier individual components to be evaluated in ‘deflection_Hilderbrandt’ however where this is done is simply a mater of code design. (I did it in the calling script here.)

If the rest of the code is correect, thiw works and produces the correct result —

v={(5/2) 5 3 30*exp(6) (16/625) 30};
[x,L,a,E,I,P] = v{:}

x = 2.5000

L = 5

a = 3

E = 1.2103e+04

I = 0.0256

P = 30

[V]=deflection_Hilderbrandt(x,L,a,E,I,P);

b = 2

V = 15.2861

The value of vertical deflection V is 

V

V = 15.2861

function [V]=deflection_Hilderbrandt(x,L,a,E,I,P)
b=L-a

if 0<=x && a>=x
    V=((P*b/(6*E*I*L))*(-L^(2)+b^(2))*x+x^(3))
else a<x && L>=x
    V=((P*b/(6*E*I*L))*(-L^(2)+b^(2))*x+x^(3)-(L/b)*(x-a)^(3))
end
fprintf('The value of vertical deflection V is %f \n')
end

.