contour plots in MATLAB - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Creating Contour Plots in MATLAB

📖 Scenario: You are working as a data analyst and need to visualize the height variations of a terrain using contour plots. Contour plots help show lines of equal height, making it easier to understand the shape of the land.

🎯 Goal: Build a MATLAB program that creates a contour plot from a grid of height data. You will first set up the data, then configure the grid, apply the contour plotting function, and finally display the plot.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a matrix called Z representing height values.

Create vectors X and Y representing the grid coordinates.

Use the contour function with X, Y, and Z to generate the contour plot.

Display the contour plot with labeled contour lines.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Contour plots are used in geography to show elevation, in meteorology to show pressure or temperature, and in engineering to visualize data like stress or heat distribution.

💼 Career

Knowing how to create and interpret contour plots is useful for data analysts, engineers, and scientists who need to visualize complex data in a clear way.

1

DATA SETUP: Create height data matrix

Create a matrix called Z with these exact values: [1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9].

MATLAB

% Create the matrix Z with the specified values
% Your code here

Need a hint?

Use square brackets and semicolons to create a 3x3 matrix.

2

CONFIGURATION: Create grid coordinate vectors

Create vectors X and Y as [1 2 3] to represent the grid coordinates.

MATLAB

Z = [1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9];
% Create vectors X and Y with values [1 2 3]
% Your code here

Need a hint?

Use square brackets to create the vectors.

3

CORE LOGIC: Generate the contour plot

Use the contour function with X, Y, and Z to create the contour plot and assign the output to C and h.

MATLAB

Z = [1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9];
X = [1 2 3];
Y = [1 2 3];
% Create contour plot using contour(X, Y, Z)
% Your code here

Need a hint?

Use square brackets to capture multiple outputs from the contour function.

4

OUTPUT: Label and display the contour plot

Use clabel with C and h to label the contour lines and display the plot.

MATLAB

Z = [1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9];
X = [1 2 3];
Y = [1 2 3];
[C, h] = contour(X, Y, Z);
% Label the contour lines
% Your code here

Need a hint?

Use clabel(C, h) to add labels to the contour lines.