Unable to perform assignment because the left and right sides have a different number of elements

I understand the concept behind the error, but not so much the reason as it applies to the code. This is a homework problem that I was given.

If there are other issues with this code, I would really appreciate any and all explanations!

t = (0:.2:50);
V = zeros(length(t));
for i=1:length(t)
   if 0 <= t(i) <= 8
      V(i) = 10*t.^2-5*t;
   elseif 8 < t(i) <= 16
      V(i) = 624-5*t;
   elseif 16 < t(i) <= 26
      V(i) = 36*t+12*(t-16)^2;
   else t(i) > 26;
      V(i) = 2136*exp(1)^(-0.1*(t-26));
   end
end
plot(t,V)

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

   if 0 <= t(i) && t(i) <= 8
      V(i) = 10*t(i).^2-5*t(i);

Also

else t(i) > 26;

That calculates whether t(i) is greater than 26, and then throws away the result of the test because of the semi-colon. Notice that you did not use elseif

[Nathan Brannan]

That seemed to work well. Thanks!

Answer 2

[David Hill]

t = (0:.2:50);
V = zeros(length(t));
for i=1:length(t)
   if 0 <= t(i)&&t(i) <= 8
      V(i) = 10*t(i)^2-5*t(i);
   elseif 8 < t(i)&& t(i) <= 16
      V(i) = 624-5*t(i);
   elseif 16 < t(i)&&t(i) <= 26
      V(i) = 36*t(i)+12*(t(i)-16)^2;
   elseif t(i) > 26
      V(i) = 2136*exp(1)^(-0.1*(t(i)-26));
   end
end
plot(t,V)

[Nathan Brannan]

Thank you!