Surface Plots
What is a surface plot?
A surface plot or graph of a function shows two independent
variables; one on the x-axis and the other on the y-axis. The dependent variable is
plotted on the z-axis. Note that the dependent variable is plotted on a different axis
than the other 3 D graphs we've seen. This is simply due to the use of another notation
commonly used by mathematicians to label axes in 3 D work.
Example of a surface plot or graph:
This is a surface plot of the Gaussian distribution function, e(-(x2+y2)). The x-axis and y-axis are the x and y values of the function from 0 to 40 (independent variables). The z-axis is the resulting value of the function (dependent variable) with a range from 0 to 1.
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