MATLAB: Queries on the use of “double”

doublesubs

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

Best Answer

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")
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