How can I plot two 2D figures simultaneously, with one orthogonal to the other? They both share the same t axis, but the x axis lies perpendicular to the z axis and t axis, and they all share the same zero point.

t = 0:.1:20;

x = 2*(18./(.5*t+.5).^.5 - 5.5);
z = 18./(.5*t+.5).^.5 - 5.5;

figure(1)
plot(t,x,':')
xlabel('Time')
ylabel('Distance')
set(gcf,'color','w')

figure(2)
plot(t,z,':')
xlabel('Time')
ylabel('Sink Rate')
set(gcf,'color','w')
axis([-inf inf -20 20])

Answer 1

[Kelly Kearney]

Do you mean you want a 3D axis?

t = 0:.1:20;

x = 2*(18./(.5*t+.5).^.5 - 5.5); 
z = 18./(.5*t+.5).^.5 - 5.5;

figure;
plot3(t, x, zeros(size(t)));
hold on
plot3(t, zeros(size(t)), z);
xlabel('Time');
ylabel('Distance');
zlabel('Sink Rate');
grid on;
set(gca, 'ydir', 'reverse');

[edward bachelder]

I'd like the graph to look similar to what is shown in the attached file

[edward bachelder]

Using the view(az,el) I rotated your solution to what I needed. Thanks very much Kelly!