“Surveying”

Classifications of Surveys:

 Plane Surveying- surveying in which the earth is considered to be flat.

 Geodetic Surveying- surveys of wide extent which take into account the spheroidal Shape of the earth

Types of Surveys:

 Cadastral Surveys- Surveys done to determine property lines and boundaries, corners and areas.
 City Surveys – surveys done in and near the city for the purpose of planning expansion improvements,
locating property lines.
 Construction Surveys – surveys which are undertaken to provide data regarding grades, reference lines,
dimensions, ground configuration, and the location and elevation of the structures which are of concern to
engineers
 Forestry Surveys – a type of survey executed in connection with forest management and mensuration
 Hydrographic Surveys – surveying of bodies of water to map shore lines, chart the shape of areas
underlying the water surfaces and measuring the flow of streams
 Industrial Surveys – It refers to the use of surveying techniques in ship building, construction and
assembly of aircraft, layout and installation of heavy and cmplex machinery.
 Mine Surveys – surveys which are performed to determine the position of all underground excavations and
surface mine structures.
 Photogrammetric Surveys – Type of Survey which makes use of photographs taken with specially designed
cameras either from airplanes or ground stations
 Route Surveys – Determination of alignment, grades, earthwork quantities location of natural and artificial
objects in connection with the planning, design and construction of linear projects
 Topographic surveys – are those surveys made for determining the shape of the ground and the location
and elevation of natural and artificial features upon it.

Surveying Instruments:

 Astrolabe. The astrolabe of Hipparchus is considered to be one of the best known of the measuring
instruments that have come down from ancient times.

 Telescope. The invention of the telescope in. 1607 is generally accredited to Lippershey. In 1609, Ga1ileo
constructed a refracting telescope for astronomical observations. However, it was only when cross hairs
for fixing the line of sight were introduced, that the telescope was fixed in early surveying instruments.

 Transit. The invention of the transit is credited to Young and Draper who worked independently from each
other sometime in 1830. Both men were able to put together in one instrument the essential parts of what
has long been known as the universal surveying instrument.

 Semicircumferentor. An early surveying instrument which was used to measure and layoff angles, and
establish lines of sight by employing peep sights.

 Plane Table. One of the oldest types of surveying instruments used in field mapping. It consists of a board
attached to a tripod in such a way that it can be leveled or rotated to any desired direction.

 Dioptra. The dioptra, which was perfected by Heron of Alexandria, was used in leveling and for measuring
horizontal and vertical angles. It consists essentially of a copper tube supported on a standard and could be
rotated in either a horizontal or vertical plane. For measuring horizontal angles, a flat circular disc with
graduations in degrees is used. An arm containing sighting apertures at either end could be rotated to any
desired position on the disc.
 Roman Groma. The Roman surveyors used the groma instrument for aligning· or sighting as an points. It
consisted basically of cross arms fixed at right angles and pivoted eccentrically upon a vertical staff.
Plumb lines were suspended from the ends of the arms. By employing the groma two lines at right angles to
each other could be established on the ground where it is set up.
 Libella. The Assyrians and Egyptians are believed to be the first users of the libella.The instrument had
an A-frame with a plumb line suspended from its apex and was used to' determine the horizontal. Archeolo-
gists are of the belief that the horizontal foundations of the great pyramids of Egypt were probably
defined by this device.

 Vernier. The vernier is a short auxiliary scale placed alongside the graduated scale of an instru ment, by
means of which fractional parts of the smallest or least division of the main scale can be determined
precisely without having to interpolate. It was invented in 1631 by a Frenchman name Pierre Vernier.
Surveying instruments employ either a direct or retrograde vernier.

 Diopter. An instrument developed by the Greeks sometime in 130 B.C., and known to be their most famous
surveying instrument. The diopter was used for leveling, laying off right angles, and for measuring hori-
zontal and vertical angles. Since the telescope was not yet invented during the time the diopter was used,
peep sights were employed for sighting and in aligning the device.

 Compass. The magnetic compass came into wide use during the 13th century for determining the direc tion
of lines and in calculating angles between lines. It was first introduced for use in navigation. The compass
consists of a magnetized steel needle mounted on a pivot at the center of a graduated circle. The needle
continues to point toward magnetic north and gives a reading which is dependent upon the position of the
graduated circle.

 Gunter"s Chain. The Gunter's chain, which was invented by Sir Edmund Gunter in 1620, was the forerunner
of instruments dsed for taping distances. It is 66 ft long and contains 100 links, so that distances may be
recorded in chains and in decimal parts of the chain. Each part, called a link, is 0.66 ft or 7.92 inches long.

 Chorobates. This instrument was designed for leveling work. It consisted of a horizontal straight-edge
about 6 meters long with supporting legs, and a groove 2.5 cm deep and, 1.5m long on top. Water is poured
into the groove and when the bar is leveled so that water stood evenly in the groove without spilling, a
horizontal line is established.

 Merchet. The merchet was a device for measuring time and meridian. It was first used by the Chaldeans in
about 4,000 B.C. It consisted of a slotted palm leaf through which to sight and a bracket from which a
plumb bob was suspended. -By sighting through the 'slot and past the plumb bob string, a straight line
could be projected.

Surveying Measurements
1. Direct Measurements - it is a comparison of the measured quantity with a standard measuring unit

2. Indirect Measurements- when it is not possible to apply a measuring instrument directly to a quantity to be
measure an indirect measurement is made.

The meters
- the international unit of linear measure

International System Units (SI)

- standardize and simplify units of measurement throughout the world.

Units of Measurements
- the usual surveying type of measurement entail both angular and linear measurements.
 - Linear, Area, and Volume Measurements:

A. Sexagesimal Units -angular measurements : degree, minutes, seconds.

B. Centesimal Units - grad is the angular unit.

Significant Figures
-Significant figures (or significant digits) are the digits in a numerical value that carry meaningful information
about its precision. They include all the certain digits plus the first uncertain digit. Zeros may or may not be
significant depending on their position. The rules for determining significant figures are:

1. All nonzero digits are considered significant.

2. Any zeros between nonzero digits are significant.
3. Leading zeros (zeros to the left of the first nonzero digit) are not considered significant.
4. Trailing zeros in a decimal number are always significant.
5. Trailing zeros in a whole number without a decimal point are not considered significant.
For example:

In the number 345.0, there are four significant figures.

In the number 0.00345, there are three significant figures.
In the number 120, there are two significant figures.

ERRORS MISTAKES AND BLUNDERS

Measurements observed are not always equal to the exact measurement of the object. Errors mistakes and
blunders are used interchangeably in other fields but in Surveying Errors, Mistakes and Blunders mean
different things.
Errors
Errors are the difference between the true value and the measured value of the quantity. It is
beyond the control of the surveyor
Mistakes
Mistakes – inaccuracies in measurements which occur because some aspect of a surveying
operation is performed by the surveyor with carelessness, inattention, poor judgment, and improper
execution
Blunders
Blunders are large mistakes due to the lack of diligence. These are very obvious. When
quantities are
observed multiple times blunder entries are removed and neglected.
From among the three, blunder has the most magnitude and is often measured again or ignored. Errors
has the least magnitude and the
TYPES OF ERRORS
Error is the difference between the measured value and the actual value caused by imperfection of the
instruments and the limitations of the human senses. There are two types of errors that we can encounter
while making observations. These are systematic and accidental.
SYSTEMATIC ERRORS
Repetitive errors that are caused by imperfections in the surveying equipment, by the specific
method of observation, or by certain environmental factors, are systematic errors. They are also
referred to as mechanical or cumulative errors.
Accidental Errors
An accidental or random error is the difference between a true quantity and a measurement of that quantity
that is free from blunders or systematic errors. Accidental errors always occur in every measurement. They
are the relatively small, unavoidable errors in observation that are generally beyond the control of the
surveyor.
SOURCES OF ERRORS
No observation is perfect. There are minor deviations from actual value. These deviations may come from
different sources. There are three different sources of errors of measurement in surveying.
• Instrumental Errors – these errors are due to the imperfections in the instruments used, either from
faults in their construction or from improper adjustments between the different parts prior to
their
use.
• Natural Errors – these errors are caused by variations in the phenomena of nature such as changes
in magnetic declination, temperature, humidity, wind, refraction, gravity and curvature of the
earth.
• Personal Errors – these errors arise principally from limitations of the senses of sight, touch and
hearing of the human observer

TYPES OF ERRORS

-Systematic Errors
-one which will always have the same sign and magnitude

-Accidental Errors
- purely accidental in character

Accuracy vs. Precision

In any measuring activity, we always consider the quality of our observations. The terms that would describe
observations in surveying are Accuracy and Precision. Accuracy and Precision terms that are often used
in surveying thus a discussion is necessary to avoid confusion.

Accuracy - indicates how close a given measurement is to the absolute or true value of the quantity
measured.
Precision – refers to the degree of refinement and consistency with which any physical measurement is
made.
Observations that are accurate and precise are the most ideal observations. Not all accurate
observations
are precise and not all precise observations are accurate. It is best shown using the bullseye analogy.

THEORY OF PROBABILITY
In surveying, the following assumptions are made on the occurrence of error
1. Small errors occur more often than large ones
2. Large errors happen infrequently and are less probable
3. Positive and negative errors happen with equal frequency
4. The most probable value is the mean of an infinite number of observations
Most Probable Value
Since errors are always present in measurements, the actual value is equal to the mean of all the
observations made infinite number of times. Because we cannot measure any quantity infinite number of
times, we make multiple observations. The mean of the observation is considered as the actual value or
the Most Probable Value. The formula for MPV is:

Residual
Difference between measured quantity and its most probable value.
V1 = X1 – MPV
V2 = X2 – MPV
And so on.
V1 = is the residual for the first observation, V2 is the residual for the 2nd observation and so on, The
number of residual is equal to the number of observations made. Observations and measurements are
synonymous in this module.

Probable Error

In statistics, probable error defines the half-range of an interval about a central point for the
distribution, such that half of the values from the distribution will lie within the interval and half outside.
When buying measuring equipment with relatively high precision, we often see in the specifications the ±

Probable Error of the Mean

Weighted observations

Weighted observations in surveying involve assigning different levels of importance or weights to

various measurements based on their reliability or precision. This technique is employed to enhance the
accuracy of survey data analysis and computations, giving more influence to more reliable measurements while
minimizing the impact of less reliable ones.

Relative (error) Precision

Expressed in fractions having the magnitude of the error in the numerator and the magnitude of the
measured quantity in the denominator.
Weight Observation

Weighted observations in surveying involve assigning different levels of importance or weights to

various measurements based on their reliability or precision. This technique is employed to enhance the
accuracy of survey data analysis and computations, giving more influence to more reliable measurements while
minimizing the impact of less reliable ones.

WEIGHTED MEASUREMENTS