How do I apply the Method of Steepest Descent in Matlab?

Hello all!

I'm relatively new to MATLAB and I was wondering if I can get some help with my homework, I would really appreciate it. Given the function f(y)=(y2-x)^2 I calculated the derivative to be f'(y)= 2(y^2-x)(2y), using the chain rule The question is: "write a script that uses a while loop within a while loop to apply the method of steepest descent. The outer while loop must contain an input statement to receive a value of x, and if the input is not greater than zero, then break out of this loop, which terminates the program. If input x is greater than zero, then the inner while loop must apply the method of steepest descent to find y." I'm not asking for a straight up answer, I'm just really confused at this point and its really overwhelming to not know how to do this. I would appreciate any help i'm given. Thanks in advance. Ferris

[Sara Hafeez]

It may help

Answer 1

[Sara Hafeez]

http://www.wiley.com/legacy/products/subject/engineering/venkat/Chapter6/SteepestDescent.txt

[Ferris]

Thank you for your response. But I don't understand it.