In making sketches of landscapes and cross-sections, the vertical dimension is frequently exaggerated to show detail. Vertical exaggeration is a number that represents the magnitude of this exaggeration. It is a proportion between the vertical scale and the horizontal scale. For example, a cross section with a vertical exaggeration of 4 has a vertical scale that is four times the horizontal scale (in this example the vertical scale could be 1:25 while the horizontal scale is 1:100).
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