# Should gradient descent create a path that is always perpendicular to contour lines?

**URL:** <https://community.deeplearning.ai/t/should-gradient-descent-create-a-path-that-is-always-perpendicular-to-contour-lines/563036>\
**Category:** Supervised ML: Regression and Classification\
**Tags:** week-module-1\
**Created:** [February 1, 2024, 9:45am UTC](https://community.deeplearning.ai/t/should-gradient-descent-create-a-path-that-is-always-perpendicular-to-contour-lines/563036 "2024-02-01T09:45:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![rmwkwok](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/dlai/user_avatar/community.deeplearning.ai/rmwkwok/32/126977_2.png) [@rmwkwok](https://community.deeplearning.ai/u/rmwkwok)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2024, 5:03pm UTC](https://community.deeplearning.ai/t/should-gradient-descent-create-a-path-that-is-always-perpendicular-to-contour-lines/563036/2 "2024-02-01T17:03:29Z")

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Hello @neirar,

Very interesting observation!

For your first question, I encourage you to try and see what is causing what you see. ([Edit: I have added a GIF here to show what’s causing it](https://community.deeplearning.ai/t/c1w1-lab04-why-arent-the-gradients-perpendicular-to-the-contour-lines/590511/5)) After you are sure that the function is giving the correct gradient path, then you can test if the path is always on the same plane for your second question 😉

Cheers,  
Raymond

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