The problem description leaves much to the imagination. If you want to offset them on the x-axis, this likely requires a loop. (I also made them functions in the event that the function argument was to be shifted, so for example the first would be ‘N1_0(x)’ the second ‘N1_0(x+0.5)’ and so for the others.) Here, I just shifted the fplot evaluation intervals.
syms a(x)
N1_0(x) = - (3*x^5)/16 + (5*x^3)/8 - (15*x)/16 + (1/2);
N2_0(x) = (3*x^5)/16 - (5*x^3)/8 + (15*x)/16 + 1/2;
N1_1(x) = - (3*x^5)/16 + x^4/16 + (5*x^3)/8 - (3*x^2)/8 - (7*x)/16 + 5/16;
N2_1(x) = - (3*x^5)/16 - x^4/16 + (5*x^3)/8 + (3*x^2)/8 - (7*x)/16 - 5/16;
N1_2(x) = - x^5/16 + x^4/16 + x^3/8 - x^2/8 - x/16 + 1/16;
N2_2(x) = x^5/16 + x^4/16 - x^3/8 - x^2/8 + x/16 + 1/16;
Nc = {N2_0; N1_1; N2_1; N1_2; N2_2};
x1 = 0;
x2 = 0.25;
x3 = 0.5;
x4 = 0.75;
x5 = 1;
% a(x) = piecewise(x1<=x<=x2,0,x4<=x<=x5,0,x3<=x<=x4,N1_0,x2<=x<=x3,N2_0,x2<=x<=x3,N1_1,x3<=x<=x4,N1_1,x2<=x<=x3,N2_0,x2<=x<=x3,N2_1,x3<=x<=x4,N2_2)
% fplot(a)
xv = [0 5];
figure
fplot(N1_0,xv)
hold on
for k = 1:numel(Nc)
fplot(Nc{k},[xv(1)+0.5*k xv(2)])
end
hold off
grid
The piecewise approach would work for discontinuous funcitons (so each defined over different, consecutive intervals of ‘x’), however that is not my impression of what you want to do.
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