Can I create a symbolic variable with units and assign an initial value of 0

G'day, new to Matlab and just been through symbolic equations tutorial.

If I do the following:

syms dia circ u
u=sysunit
dia=10*u.m        %10 is assigned with the unit of a metre
If I then say
dia = 0
dia
0 %zero is returned with no units.

Can I assign units to a sym reqardless of quantity and have the units carry through all calculations?

That is, can I define dia and circ with the units of metre or kg etc without assigning a numeric value?

Thanks and reqards

Paul

Answer 1

[Priyanshu Mishra]

According to MATALAB documentation, you need to assign a value to speciy unit. For more information on symunit, you may refer to the following link

https://in.mathworks.com/help/symbolic/symunit.html?s_tid=doc_ta

Answer 2

[Paul Buckman]

Thank you Priyanshu

I sort of solved this by creating a function and assigning the units to the function

syms d x u
u = symunit;
fArea(d)=(pi * (d/2)^2)*u.meter^2;      %Area of a circle
x = 3;
A = fArea(x);
%That returns
A =
 
((9*pi)/4)*[m]^2

%if I then do
>> A=0

A =

     0        %no units from here on

I would humbly suggest that 0 (zero) is a valid quantity for many if not most variables. Example, velocity calculations on a four-bar linkage crank/ slider mechanism. Both the velocity and acceleration variables goto zero at some point through their position calculations; velocity goes to zero when the slider reaches its maximum and minimum travel, with acceleration going to maximum (+ or -). Motion then reverses and velocity begings to increase from zero. Therefore is a valid value and consequently it should retain its units.

Thanks and Regards

Paul

Answer 3

[Walter Roberson]

Units are implemented by multiplying by a symbolic variable that can be recognized by the units manipulation package. Unfortunately because it is a multiplication, when the value being multiplied by is 0, the result simplifies to just 0 -- with no unit.

You have to use cell array representation to hold the units along with a value of 0. See the temperature 0 discussion at https://www.mathworks.com/help/symbolic/units-conversion.html

Answer 4

[Paul Buckman]

Thank you Walter

I do accept the way it works, and I must say that this is an incredible application.

Still getting to grips with its power. Thank you one and all

[Walter Roberson]

It is a nuisance that 0 acts this way, and I filed a bug report about it years ago. I do recommend that other people file as well, as Mathworks prioritizes problems that multiple people complain about.