Fitting a lines to a scatter plot?
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Hello,
I am taking a course with a ton of data analysis. I switched over to Engineering Equation Solver just because of the graphing capabilities, however I am not liking the limited options of using an array. The only reason I switched is because I am not too comfortable with plotting data and then fitting a line. Last data analysis assignment I had a lot of problems plotting lines on a scatter plot. What I am going to do now is take the array I have in EES and compress it to a matrix in Matlab.
Can someone explain to me how to fit a variety of trends to a scatter of data?
Accepted Answer
More Answers (4)
Image Analyst
on 31 Jan 2018
3 votes
See my attached polyfit demo. The m-file will create this plot:

You can make the graph as fancy as you desire. You have control over virtually everything in it, like marker size, line width, axes labels, font sizes and colors, legends, etc.
Zach Dunagan
on 1 Feb 2018
2 Comments
Image Analyst
on 2 Feb 2018
polyfit() should work. Did you try the demo I attached? Just plug in your x and y values and it should work. If you still can't figure it out, attach your workbook in a .zip file and I'll do it for you.
Image Analyst
on 2 Feb 2018
You did see the complete demo I posted below, didn't you?
Image Analyst
on 2 Feb 2018
Try this:
% Initialization / clean-up code.
clc; % Clear the command window.
close all; % Close all figures (except those of imtool.)
clear; % Erase all existing variables. Or clearvars if you want.
workspace; % Make sure the workspace panel is showing.
format long g;
format compact;
fontSize = 25;
% importing data from excel
fri_12 = xlsread('Fri12PM.xlsx'); % friday 12:00 PM
fri_150 = xlsread('Fri150PM.xlsx'); % friday 1:50 PM
tue_1 = xlsread('Tue1PM.xlsx'); % tuesday 1:00 PM
% delP venturi
delP_all_ven = [fri_12(:, 6); fri_150(:, 6); tue_1(:, 6)]; % inH2O
% converting inH2O to Pa
delP_ven_inH2O_Pa = 248.84 * delP_all_ven; % Pa
% delP fan
delP_all_fan = [fri_12(:, 5); fri_150(:, 5); tue_1(:, 5)];
% convert inH2O to Pa
delP_fan_inH2O_Pa = 248.84 * delP_all_fan; % Pa
% defined variables
rho_a = 1.225; % kg/m^3
C_v = 0.99;
D_tube = 5.096 * 0.0254; % convert from in to m
A_t = (pi * D_tube^2) / 4;
d1 = D_tube;
d2 = 2.6 * 0.0254; % convert from in to m
beta = d2/d1;
E = 1 / sqrt(1 - beta^4);
i = 1;
% equations
for i = 1:length(delP_all_fan)
% venturimeter flow rate m^3/s
Q_ven(i) = C_v * E * A_t * sqrt((2 * delP_all_ven(i)) / (rho_a));
% flow power supplied by fan
B_fL(i) = Q_ven(i) * delP_all_fan(i);
end
% Plot ven volume flow rate vs fan power
subplot(1, 2, 1);
scatter(Q_ven, B_fL, 'filled')
grid on;
xlabel('Volumetric Flow Rate (m^3 / sec)', 'FontSize', fontSize);
ylabel('Power (Watts)', 'FontSize', fontSize);
title('Power vs. Volumetric Flow Rate', 'FontSize', fontSize);
% Volumetric volume flow rate vs delP fan
subplot(1, 2, 2);
scatter(Q_ven, delP_fan_inH2O_Pa, 'filled');
grid on;
xlabel('Volumetric Flow Rate (m^3 / sec)', 'FontSize', fontSize);
ylabel('Delta Pressure Venturimeter (Pa)', 'FontSize', fontSize);
title('Volumetric Flow Rate vs. Delta Pressure Venturi', 'FontSize', fontSize);
% Enlarge figure to full screen.
set(gcf, 'Units', 'Normalized', 'OuterPosition', [0, 0.04, 1, 0.96]);
% Make Q_ven and B_fL column vectors like the other variables.
Q_ven = Q_ven(:);
B_fL = B_fL(:);
%-------------------------------------------------------
% Data fitting to a line.
order = 1; % Or 2 to a quadratic.
% First the first plot.
coefficients1 = polyfit(Q_ven, B_fL, order);
% Make new x coordinates
x1 = linspace(min(Q_ven), max(Q_ven), 1000);
y1 = polyval(coefficients1, x1);
subplot(1, 2, 1);
hold on;
plot(x1, y1, 'r-', 'LineWidth', 3);
% Now the second plot.
coefficients2 = polyfit(Q_ven, delP_fan_inH2O_Pa, order);
% Make new x coordinates
x2 = linspace(min(Q_ven), max(Q_ven), 1000);
y2 = polyval(coefficients2, x2);
subplot(1, 2, 2);
hold on;
plot(x2, y2, 'r-', 'LineWidth', 3);

6 Comments
Zach Dunagan
on 2 Feb 2018
Edited: Zach Dunagan
on 2 Feb 2018
Image Analyst
on 2 Feb 2018
One of the inputs to scatter() is the color of the markers.
Image Analyst
on 3 Feb 2018
Use subplot(). Did you ever look at my code? Notice how I got rid of those figure calls you made and replaced them with subplot().
Zach Dunagan
on 23 Feb 2018
Image Analyst
on 25 Feb 2018
Here is your for loop:
for i = 1:15
% for 5 points per plate
for j = 1:5;
% 5x15 matrix for ven and fan
ven_m(j, i) = ven(i * j);
fan_m(j, i) = fan(i * j);
% venturi flow rate
Q_ven(j, i) = C_v * E * A_t * sqrt((2 .* ven_m(j, i)) / (rho_a));
% flow power supplied by fan
B_fL(j, i) = Q_ven(j, i) * fan_m(j, i);
end
end
Tell me what line you used subplot on, because I'm not seeing it.
Zach Dunagan
on 26 Feb 2018
Chandra Mouli
on 29 Apr 2020
0 votes
hey @Image Analyst can u help me in fitting my graph for a equation?
5 Comments
Image Analyst
on 29 Apr 2020
OK, sure, but you don't seem to have posted your question (yet). What is the link to it?
Chandra Mouli
on 30 Apr 2020
see the formulae of mine is veru huge ....and i am gettig no idea how to do it....i attached my pdf document , in that the formulae -2 .
Image Analyst
on 30 Apr 2020
Just break it into pieces, like
numerator1 = .......
denominator1 = ......
numerator2 = .....
denominator2 = ......
etc. I'm sure you can do it.
Chandra Mouli
on 30 Apr 2020
Did u go through my pdf ?
Image Analyst
on 30 Apr 2020
Yes, I looked at it. I think it's perfectly within the capabilities of a smart engineer like you to create each term of that equation. It's not so hard if you just break it down into smaller chunks and then reassemble.
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