Queries on the use of "double"

Hi MATLAB, during our laboratory simulation, when we evaluate sin(x) when x=2, and use the "subs" command, some students reported the answer as sin(2) instead of 0.9093. How come? But when they use the "double" command, they arrived 0.9093. But other computers don;t need double command.

Case 1:

Script:

y=input('Input f(x): ');
x=input('Input x for f(x): ');
val=subs(y,x)
Result:
Input f(x): sin(x)
Input x for f(x): 2
val=
sin(2)

Case 2:

Script:

y=input('Input f(x): ');
x=input('Input x for f(x): ');
val=subs(y,x)
Result:
Input f(x): sin(x)
Input x for f(x): 2
val=
0.9093

Why did some computers reported sin(2) instead of 0.9093 with the same script? Why do some programs need double command but other computeres don't? Thank you

Answer 1

[Ameer Hamza]

This is probably caused by symbolic preferences on your machines. I guess you have defined x as a symbolic variable before this code.

syms x

By default, in the case of symbolic variables, MATLAB does not convert to a floating-point value; therefore, sin(2) is the default answer. If you are getting a value of 0.9093, then that means that somehow the preference has been changed by running

sympref("FloatingPointOutput", 1)

If you want always to get floating-point output, run the above line on all machines. To get the default preferences, run

sympref("default")

[Doc Ed]

thank you

[Ameer Hamza]

I am glad to be of help!

Answer 2

[BOB MATHEW SYJI]

I think the first one uses syms command anywhere in the script while the second one does not. While you use syms command the entire expression is given as output. So you have to manually give double(output) to get the value.