Contour Plots
Math 113
This Maple session gives some examples of creating contour plots.
First, load the "plots" library:
> with(plots):
Define an expression to hold f(x,y). We'll do a contour plot for
f(x,y) = x^2+2*y^2.
> f := x^2 + 2*y^2;
:= f + x22y2
The contourplot command creates a contour plot. The first argument is the function; the second and
third arguments are the x and y ranges, respectively.
> contourplot(f,x=-1..1,y=-1..1);
After the first three arguments, you can include many optional arguments. The following are just a
small sample.
You can specify the exact number of contours to draw with "contours=N" (replace N with the
number). The default is 8.
OR, you can specify the actual contour values to be used to create the contour lines with
"contours=[z1,z2,...,zn]". For example, the option contours=[0,0.5,1,1.5,2,2.5] would create a
contour plot with the six given contour values.
