In this example the distance is 2 kilometres or 2000 metres. To determine how far apart points X and Y are we need to use the map scale. This will give us the overall change in elevation between the two points, i.e. To find the Rise (vertical interval) we need to subtract the highest elevation with the lowest. To find out the gradient we need to divide the rise (vertical difference) by the run (horizontal equivalent).
If you are hiking from point Y to point X are you going uphill or downhill? How can you tell?.You want to find out how steep this hike is going to be. Suppose you want to go for a hike from point Y to point X. The gradient is obtained by dividing the rise over the run as seen in Image 1 below. To find the gradient, the horizontal distance (run) as well as the vertical distance (rise) between two points need to be determined. The average gradient of a slope can be calculated from contour lines on a topographical map. Gradient is typically expressed as a ratio. In other words it measures the rate at which the slope is rising or falling. It measures how much the elevation of a slope changes as one moves horizontally over the surface. Gradient is a mathematical formula usually used to measure how steep or gentle a slope is.
