How do I convert decimals to exponents in a matrix?

I am trying to generate a matrix with exponents (ie. (8)^5), but the numbers appear as decimals instead. How do I fix this?

This is the code I used:

A=[1 (2)^1 (2)^2 (2)^3 (2)^4 (2)^5 0.20;1 (5)^1 (5)^2 (5)^3 (5)^4 (5)^5 0.29;1 (8)^1 (8)^2 (8)^3 (8)^4 (8)^5 0.44;1 (11)^1 (11)^2 (11)^3 (11)^4 (11)^5 0.50;1 (14)^1 (14)^2 (14)^3 (14)^4 (14)^5 0.66;1 (20)^1 (20)^2 (20)^3 (20)^4 (20)^5 0.56]

B=rref(A)

[Stephen23]

Numeric matrices do not store any formatting information.

What are you actually trying to achieve?:

https://xyproblem.info/

[Deleted User]

I am trying to generate a matrix with whole numbers, so that I can find the rref and then substitute the numbers into a polynomial equation.

Answer 1

[Pavan Sahith]

Hello,

It seems you are trying to work with whole numbers and keep the results in an exact form (e.g., for symbolic computation or to avoid rounding errors), you might consider using symbolic math.

MATLAB's Symbolic Math Toolbox allows you to perform computations symbolically, keeping results in exact form rather than approximating them as floating-point numbers.

You can try something like this:

% Define the matrix symbolically
A = sym([1 (2)^1 (2)^2 (2)^3 (2)^4 (2)^5 0.20;
         1 (5)^1 (5)^2 (5)^3 (5)^4 (5)^5 0.29;
         1 (8)^1 (8)^2 (8)^3 (8)^4 (8)^5 0.44;
         1 (11)^1 (11)^2 (11)^3 (11)^4 (11)^5 0.50;
         1 (14)^1 (14)^2 (14)^3 (14)^4 (14)^5 0.66;
         1 (20)^1 (20)^2 (20)^3 (20)^4 (20)^5 0.56]);

% Compute the reduced row echelon form symbolically
B = rref(A);

% Display the result
disp(B);

You can refer to the following MathWorks documentation to know more

sym - https://www.mathworks.com/help/symbolic/sym.html

Hoping this would help you in moving forward.