Interpolation (interp1) in MATLAB - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Interpolation with interp1 in MATLAB

📖 Scenario: You are working with temperature data collected at specific hours of the day. However, you want to estimate the temperature at times between the recorded hours.

🎯 Goal: Build a MATLAB script that uses interp1 to find estimated temperatures at new times using linear interpolation.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create vectors for recorded times and temperatures

Create a vector for new times where temperature needs to be estimated

Use interp1 with linear method to interpolate temperatures

Display the interpolated temperatures

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Interpolation helps estimate unknown values between measured data points, useful in weather forecasting, engineering, and science.

💼 Career

Knowing how to use interpolation functions like <code>interp1</code> is important for data analysis and modeling tasks in engineering and research jobs.

1

Create recorded time and temperature vectors

Create a vector called time with values [0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24] representing hours of the day. Create a vector called temp with values [15 17 20 22 24 23 21 18 16] representing temperatures at those times.

MATLAB

% Create vectors 'time' and 'temp' with given values
% Your code here

Need a hint?

Use square brackets to create vectors. Separate values with spaces.

2

Create new time points for interpolation

Create a vector called new_time with values [1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22] representing hours where you want to estimate temperature.

MATLAB

time = [0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24];
temp = [15 17 20 22 24 23 21 18 16];
% Create vector 'new_time' with given values
% Your code here

Need a hint?

Use square brackets and spaces to create the vector.

3

Interpolate temperatures at new times

Use interp1 with time, temp, and new_time to create a vector called interp_temp that contains temperatures estimated by linear interpolation.

MATLAB

time = [0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24];
temp = [15 17 20 22 24 23 21 18 16];
new_time = [1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22];
% Use interp1 to interpolate temperatures
% Your code here

Need a hint?

Use interp1(time, temp, new_time, 'linear') to get interpolated values.

4

Display the interpolated temperatures

Use disp to print the vector interp_temp showing the estimated temperatures at the new times.

MATLAB

time = [0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24];
temp = [15 17 20 22 24 23 21 18 16];
new_time = [1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22];
interp_temp = interp1(time, temp, new_time, 'linear');
% Display the interpolated temperatures
% Your code here

Need a hint?

Use disp(interp_temp) to show the results.