function out=nodet(A)
%
% NODET(A) calculates the characteristic polynomial of a
% given square matrix by extracting the linear dependency
% relations between iterates of a random vector v.
% If A is a scalar, then a random matrix size AxA will be used. 
%
% Compare by calling poly(A) with the same matrix.
% 
% Not yet tested for repeated or nonreal eigenvalues.....
%
% Matthias Kawski. http://math.la.asu.edu/~kawski
% July 2001. All rights reserved.

if nargin < 1
   A = rand(5,5);
end
if size(A)==[1,1]
   A = rand(A);
end
n = size(A,1);

v(:,1)=rand(n,1);
%
for k = [1:n] 
   v(:,k+1) = A*v(:,k);
end
v
disp('Matrix whose columns are iterates of random vector v')
disp('Strike any key top continue')
pause
%
% The (n=1)-st column MUST be linearly dependent on the prior ones.
%
nn = null(v,'r');
%
% fixed multiples of the coefficients of the characteristic 
% polynomial of A (MATLAB might not have scaled the vector
% to have last component equal to one... just to be sure: 
%
poly(A)
disp('The characteristic polynomial obtained from poly(A)')
disp('Strike any key top continue')
pause

n0  = nn(n+1);
out = flipud(nn/n0)';
disp('The char. poly. as extracted from dependency relations')