Contour Map

 

Contour Map

Week 12

Contour map is another name for a topographic map. It is a map that shows the elevation of land on a flat paper surface. The contour map contain an imaginary lines which connects points of equal elevation called contour line. Such lines are drawn on the plan of an area after establishing reduced levels of several points in the area.

 

For example, to sketch a contour line given equation  

Using level curves corresponding to:

k = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 where k is any number

From the equation

Z² = X² + y²

We know that we have a cone, or at least a portion of a cone.  Since we know that square roots will only return positive numbers, it looks like we’ve only got the upper half of a cone.

 So the contour lines in an area are drawn keeping difference in elevation of between two consecutive lines constant.

Z = (x² +y^2)1/2