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Geographical Skills

OS maps: gradient, contours and landscape features

  • 3 things to know
  • All three papers

Overview

Contour lines and their spacing, spot heights, calculating gradient as a ratio, reading heights and grid numbers off a map, and recognising valleys, steep uplands and ridges from the pattern of contours.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What is a contour line?

Key term

What does the spacing of contour lines tell you about a slope?

Key term

What is a spot height?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is a contour line?

    Model answer

    A line joining all the points on the map that lie at the same height above sea level.

  2. 2

    What does the spacing of contour lines tell you about a slope?

    Model answer

    Lines close together mean a steep slope, and lines far apart mean a gentle one.

  3. 3

    What is a spot height?

    Model answer

    A dot with a figure beside it giving the exact height of that point above sea level.

  4. 4

    How is the gradient of a slope worked out from a map?

    Model answer

    The difference in height between two points is divided by the horizontal distance between them, and the answer is given as a ratio such as 1 in 20.

  5. 5

    The land rises 50 m over a horizontal distance of 1 000 m. What is the gradient?

    Model answer

    1 in 20, because 1 000 divided by 50 is 20.

  6. 6

    Which numerical values can be read straight off a map without any measuring?

    Model answer

    Spot heights, trig point heights, the values printed on contour lines, and the numbers on the grid lines.

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