Currently, computational calculation is a common tool in chemistry laboratories and students need the knowledge and skill to perform statistical and software programming. A great number of software commercial packages are available to perform different mathematical and statistical tasks but, quite often, specific studies need a more appropriate one. Acquiring new software for every new situation is not suitable. It is better for students to learn to develop the software for specific needs. The students need to be able to solve computational problems by themselves. The use of MATLAB allows the calculation and resolution of complex statistical and mathematical operations with very simple programming commands. In this paper, an experimental problem, the calculations of kinetics parameters for an oxidation reaction, is solved using MATLAB code written for this purpose.
Espínosa-Mansilla et al. (2007) studied this question.