PSU CMPSC200 MIDTERM 2025
QUESTIONS & CORRECT ANSWERS.
ALREADY GRADED A+.
xor( ) - ANSExclusive or
Which timing approach is most appropriate for measuring wall time, i.e. the amount of
"real" time elapsed? - ANStic and toc( )
Which of the following purposes can a counter be used for? - ANS1. To keep track of
"How many?"
Which of the following is not true about plotting in MATLAB? - ANSPlotting is not a
useful feature in the MATLAB programming language
Which of the following conditions are required for row echelon form? Row echelon form
should not be confused with row reduced echelon form. - ANS1. The pivot of a nonzero
row is always to the right of the pivot of the row above it
Which of the following are true about MATLAB variables? - ANS1. May contain letters or
numbers
Which of the following are important considerations when planning out a GUI-involved
program? - ANS1. How to present the program to the user
Which of the following are characters that require special formatting to be printed? -
ANS1. Single quotation mark: '
Which of the following are characteristics of syntax errors? - ANS1. The code is written
in such a way that MATLAB does not understand what it is being asked to do
Which of the following are characteristics of computers? - ANS1. Do not tire
Which built-in command would you use if you wanted to generate uniformly distributed
pseudorandom numbers? - ANSrand( )
Which built-in command returns the largest number of elements in any dimension of a
variable? - ANSlength( )
When utilizing a MATLAB built-in ODE solver, in the function for one's states the
variable for the state derivatives must be organized as a column vector. - ANSTrue
When the MATLAB interpreter reports an error it does not stop the execution of your
code. - ANSFalse
When it appears in a programming language, which of the following are possible do
while loop scenarios? - ANS1. The loop runs exactly once
When it appears in a programming language, which of the following are possible while
loop scenarios? - ANS1. The loop runs exactly once
What is the purpose of a graphics handle? - ANSProvides a unique identifier for a plot,
figure, or axis
What happens when you have a for loop inside of another for loop? - ANSThe inside for
loop is fully executed before the second iteration of the outer for loop
Volatile Memory - ANSTemporary data storage
vertcat( ) - ANSConcatenates vertically
Variables are global in scope by default; one must use a special technique to declare a
variable to be local in scope. - ANSFalse
Used for operations on sets of cells - ANSParentheses: ( and )
, PSU CMPSC200 MIDTERM 2025
QUESTIONS & CORRECT ANSWERS.
ALREADY GRADED A+.
Univariate differentiation can be thought of physically as the area under a curve. -
ANSFalse
type____ - ANSDisplays the contents of some files or functions
true - ANSThe logical value 1
trapz( ) - ANSUses the trapezoidal method to fit trapezoids under the curve as an
approximation of the area
Trapezoidal rule - ANSApproximates the function by its value at the middle point of the
subinterval
Transposition (disregard the case of complex numbers) - ANSInterchanges the rows
and columns
To use MATLAB's built-in numerical ODE solver, one must convert the ordinary
differential equation or the system of ordinary differential equations into state-space
form.
title( ) - ANSAdds a title to a plot
tic and toc( ) - ANSUsed as a stopwatch feature
There are three primary steps for writing to a file with fprintf(). Which of the following are
those steps? - ANS1. Write to the file
There are sometimes multiple valid ways to solve the same programming tasks. -
ANSTrue
The semi-colon at the end of a line of code is generally an optional piece of syntax in
the MATLAB programming language. - ANSTrue
The result of a matrix multiplication operation is mathematically defined if the inner
dimensions of the two matrices being multiplied are not equal to each other. - ANSFalse
The modern approach for symbolically solving ODEs in MATLAB is to use symbolic
functions as an input into the built-in differential equation solver command. - ANSTrue
The key parts to every function are: - ANS1. The name of the function
The key difference between animations and movies is that animations ______________
while movies ________________ - ANS1. are drawn live with no archiving
The input( ) command can be used to acquire numeric input from the user. The input( )
command can also be used to acquire character input from the user. - ANSTrue
The input (or output) order must be consistent between a function and whatever calls it.
- ANSTrue
The fact that a global variable is both visible and modifiable to all parts of a program is
both an advantage and a disadvantage. - ANSTrue
The do while loop is a useful built-in feature of the MATLAB programming language. -
ANSFalse
The dimensions of the result from a matrix multiplication operation are determined by
the outer dimensions of the two matrices being multiplied. - ANSTrue
The difference between for loops, while loop, and do while loops is that for loops
________, while loops _______, and do while loops _______, - ANS1. repeat a block of
code a fixed number of times
The default angular unit in MATLAB is radians unless specified otherwise. - ANSTrue
QUESTIONS & CORRECT ANSWERS.
ALREADY GRADED A+.
xor( ) - ANSExclusive or
Which timing approach is most appropriate for measuring wall time, i.e. the amount of
"real" time elapsed? - ANStic and toc( )
Which of the following purposes can a counter be used for? - ANS1. To keep track of
"How many?"
Which of the following is not true about plotting in MATLAB? - ANSPlotting is not a
useful feature in the MATLAB programming language
Which of the following conditions are required for row echelon form? Row echelon form
should not be confused with row reduced echelon form. - ANS1. The pivot of a nonzero
row is always to the right of the pivot of the row above it
Which of the following are true about MATLAB variables? - ANS1. May contain letters or
numbers
Which of the following are important considerations when planning out a GUI-involved
program? - ANS1. How to present the program to the user
Which of the following are characters that require special formatting to be printed? -
ANS1. Single quotation mark: '
Which of the following are characteristics of syntax errors? - ANS1. The code is written
in such a way that MATLAB does not understand what it is being asked to do
Which of the following are characteristics of computers? - ANS1. Do not tire
Which built-in command would you use if you wanted to generate uniformly distributed
pseudorandom numbers? - ANSrand( )
Which built-in command returns the largest number of elements in any dimension of a
variable? - ANSlength( )
When utilizing a MATLAB built-in ODE solver, in the function for one's states the
variable for the state derivatives must be organized as a column vector. - ANSTrue
When the MATLAB interpreter reports an error it does not stop the execution of your
code. - ANSFalse
When it appears in a programming language, which of the following are possible do
while loop scenarios? - ANS1. The loop runs exactly once
When it appears in a programming language, which of the following are possible while
loop scenarios? - ANS1. The loop runs exactly once
What is the purpose of a graphics handle? - ANSProvides a unique identifier for a plot,
figure, or axis
What happens when you have a for loop inside of another for loop? - ANSThe inside for
loop is fully executed before the second iteration of the outer for loop
Volatile Memory - ANSTemporary data storage
vertcat( ) - ANSConcatenates vertically
Variables are global in scope by default; one must use a special technique to declare a
variable to be local in scope. - ANSFalse
Used for operations on sets of cells - ANSParentheses: ( and )
, PSU CMPSC200 MIDTERM 2025
QUESTIONS & CORRECT ANSWERS.
ALREADY GRADED A+.
Univariate differentiation can be thought of physically as the area under a curve. -
ANSFalse
type____ - ANSDisplays the contents of some files or functions
true - ANSThe logical value 1
trapz( ) - ANSUses the trapezoidal method to fit trapezoids under the curve as an
approximation of the area
Trapezoidal rule - ANSApproximates the function by its value at the middle point of the
subinterval
Transposition (disregard the case of complex numbers) - ANSInterchanges the rows
and columns
To use MATLAB's built-in numerical ODE solver, one must convert the ordinary
differential equation or the system of ordinary differential equations into state-space
form.
title( ) - ANSAdds a title to a plot
tic and toc( ) - ANSUsed as a stopwatch feature
There are three primary steps for writing to a file with fprintf(). Which of the following are
those steps? - ANS1. Write to the file
There are sometimes multiple valid ways to solve the same programming tasks. -
ANSTrue
The semi-colon at the end of a line of code is generally an optional piece of syntax in
the MATLAB programming language. - ANSTrue
The result of a matrix multiplication operation is mathematically defined if the inner
dimensions of the two matrices being multiplied are not equal to each other. - ANSFalse
The modern approach for symbolically solving ODEs in MATLAB is to use symbolic
functions as an input into the built-in differential equation solver command. - ANSTrue
The key parts to every function are: - ANS1. The name of the function
The key difference between animations and movies is that animations ______________
while movies ________________ - ANS1. are drawn live with no archiving
The input( ) command can be used to acquire numeric input from the user. The input( )
command can also be used to acquire character input from the user. - ANSTrue
The input (or output) order must be consistent between a function and whatever calls it.
- ANSTrue
The fact that a global variable is both visible and modifiable to all parts of a program is
both an advantage and a disadvantage. - ANSTrue
The do while loop is a useful built-in feature of the MATLAB programming language. -
ANSFalse
The dimensions of the result from a matrix multiplication operation are determined by
the outer dimensions of the two matrices being multiplied. - ANSTrue
The difference between for loops, while loop, and do while loops is that for loops
________, while loops _______, and do while loops _______, - ANS1. repeat a block of
code a fixed number of times
The default angular unit in MATLAB is radians unless specified otherwise. - ANSTrue
