Difference between a contour map and surface map

What is the difference btwn a contour map and surface map?

I know that for both the lines are connecting the same quantity.

And we can have a colored-in contour map which then becomes

a surface map? So what is the difference?

Amanda

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

Unless there is something in your question I have not understood, the contour plot is 2-D and the surface plot is 3-D. The information in both is the same. The surfc function actually plots both in the same figure.

[Amanda]

No contour can also be a 3d plot - two variables are fixed and one is changing. So I plot with contourf or surf, what is the difference?

[Star Strider]

The contour function produces a 2-D plot of contour lines, contourf fills the 2-D plot contour lines with the colors appropriate to the value of the function, and surf and surfc generate 3-D versions of the same data, with surfc generating both 2-D and 3-D depictions. The contour3 function generates a 3-D version of the contour plot.

The difference is only in the way the data are depicted — 2-D or 3-D — not in the data on the plot. The plot function you choose depends on how you want your data presented.