Finding The Contour Maps Of A Function Of Two Variables

Question

I am given the function $f(x,y) = \ln|y-x^2|$, and am suppose to find the contour maps.

Let $z = c = f(x,y)$. $c = \ln|y-x^2| \rightarrow e^c = e^{\ln|y-x^2|} \rightarrow e^c = |y-x^2|$

I know I have to somehow remove the absolute value bars, in order to be able to perform algebraic manipulation, but I can't precisely recall how to at this point.

Answer 1

$e^{c} = \lvert y - x^2 \rvert$ means that $y-x^2 = \pm e^{c}$, thus you'll want to look at the equations $-e^{c} = y - x^2$ and $e^{c} = y - x^2$ to deduce your contour map.