MATLAB: Velocity cumtrapz or gradient

Question

Hello, I have an assignment in matlab where it says: variable AZ contains acceleration data of the center of mass of a moving subject. Use the function Cumptrapz to calculate the velocity and position of the person. Even when I go the help window for cumtrapz I still don't understand how I could use it for calculating the velocity or position. I have used gradient: [acceleration] = gradient (Velocity, dt), but what is the difference between gradient and Cumptrapz to calculating velocity?

Thank you very much!

Answer 1

The gradient function calculates the approximate numerical derivative of a vector, and the cumtrapz function calculates the approximate cumulative numerical integral of a vector. They are approximate inverses of each other.