Grade (slope)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Revision as of 12:30, 16 June 2024
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The grade (US) or gradient (UK) (also called stepth, slope, incline, mainfall, pitch or rise) of a physical feature, landform or constructed line refers to the tangent of the angle of that surface to the horizontal. It is a special case of the slope, where zero indicates horizontality. A larger number indicates higher or steeper degree of "tilt". Often slope is calculated as a ratio of "rise" to "run", or as a fraction ("rise over run") in which run is the horizontal distance (not the distance along the slope) and rise is the vertical distance.
Slopes of existing physical features such as canyons and hillsides, stream and river banks and beds are often described as grades, but typically the word "grade" is used for human-made surfaces such as roads, landscape grading, roof pitches, railroads, aqueducts, and pedestrian or bicycle routes. The grade may refer to the longitudinal slope or the perpendicular cross slope.
See also
- Angle of repose
- Aspect (geography)
- Civil engineering
- Construction surveying
- Grading (engineering)
- Cut-and-cover
- Cut and fill
- Cut (earthmoving)
- Embankment (transportation)
- Grade separation
- Inclined plane
- Jut (topography)
- List of steepest gradients on adhesion railways.
- Percentage
- Per mille
- Rake
- Roof pitch
- Ruling gradient
- Slope
- Slope stability
- Stream slope
- Surface gradient
- Surveying
- Trench
- Tunnel
- Wheelchair ramp