In days when some scholars used to show
off what Greek they know, or had found
in a dictionary, almost every kind of
line showing constant values was given
a distinct name: some have flourished
in limited fields, e.g. isotherm (temperature),
isohyet (rainfall), isobath (depth).
Some failed to get off the ground, e.g.
isonoet (lines of equal IQ), found I believe
only in one study of IQ patterns in Tasmania.
Nick
Every elementary microeconomics text is full of figures containing
isoquants (the combinations of labor and capital that yield the same
output from the production process) and "indifference curves", which
are iso-utility contours: combinations of the two goods that a consumer
might purchase which provide her with equal utility.
