Experiment No.

4 Planimeter

I. OBJECTIVE:

1. To study the principles of operation of a digital planimeter and to be able to

use the planimeter correctly.

2. To understand the concept of the experiment and to know how to use the
instrument.

3. To know why they are discrepancies occurs when performing the experiment.

II. THEORY:

There are two methods applied measuring areas of irregular figures:

These methods are:

1. by measuring ordinates.

2. by the use of an instrument called planimeter

The planimeter is generally accepted as the most accurate instrument used in

measuring the area of irregular figures. A digital planimeter has a tracer moved about
the boundaries of figures whose areas are to be measured. When the tracing of the
entire boundaries is completed the magnitude of the area, maybe read from the display.

III. APPARATUS:

Digital planimeter, rulers

IV. PROCEDURE:

Measure the areas of the following figures using the digital planimeter. Paste the
paper on a smooth lever surface and carefully set the planimeter by placing the tracer
approximately at the center of the drawing. Then place the roller in position, which will
make it at 90 with the main body. Trace the outline of the drawing with the tracer lens.
Repeat the procedure two or three items. If inconvenient or irregular movement occur,
adjust the position of the roller in order to get a smoother tracer. For selection of units,
press unit-1 which will provide selection from the metric system (example CM2, MM2, or
IN2, FT2) Note that the gate numeral display is not a gained area display but a pulse
count display only. The measured are display can be obtained only after pressing ave
key.

V. REPORT

1. Explain why there are discrepancies in the area measured by the planimeter.

2. How do you minimize the so called human error when you are using the
planimeter.

3. Describe briefly the principle applied in measuring areas by means of

planimeter.

4. Draw the planimeter . Use free- hand and colored ink.

ANSWERS

1. They are discrepancies occurs because maybe the planimeter has not been in
very recent use, the condition of the instrument and its adjustment must test
before starting also descripancies occurs when the roller is not in 90 degree and
lastly it depends also to the person who are performing the planimeter.

2. To minimize the so called human error make sure your hands is in condition it
should not be shaking when you are performing the planimeter, to lessen the
errors the will occur also in performing the planimeter when you moving it make it
slow to make the center tracer lens will not go outside.

3. The principle applied in measuring the areas using planimeter are the area of the
drawing measured by the planimeter equal to area measured in rectangle having
its base equal to length of the tracer arm and for the distance rolled by the wheel
during tracing is equal to the height

4.
COMPUTATIONS

FOR SQUARE

Area of square = s2
Area of square = (6.15 cm)2
Area of square= 37.82 cm2

FOR ELLIPSE

Area of ellipse = ab
Area of ellipse = (1.5 )(2.3)
Area of ellipse = 10.7 cm2

FOR TRIANGLE

Area of triangle = ab
Area of triangle = (5.9 cm)(5.4 cm)
Area of triangle = 5.93 cm2

FOR CIRCLE

Area of circle = 2
Area of circle = (3.2 cm)2
Area of circle = 32.17 cm2

FOR TRAPEZOID

Area of trapezoid = (b1 + b2)h

Area of trapezoid = 1/2 (3.7 cm + 7.4 cm)(4.39 cm)
Area of trapezoid = 24.36 cm2

FOR RECTANGLE

Area of rectangle = ab
Area of rectangle = (7.25 cm)(4.55 cm)
Area of rectangle = 32.99 cm2
DISCUSSION
In experiment no.4 we study about the planimeter also known as platometer which use
to measure the area of the arbitrary two-dimensional shape. Like circle, trapezoid and
etc, but before we start our experiment we observe first the group 2 on how they
perform the experiment and how they operate the planimeter, so that in our case we
know what we were going to do when it is our turn. So after them we start the
experiment, first thing we do is to on the planimeter and set this into required
information and when using or going to measure the area of the shape we make sure
that the roller is in 90 degree to get the right value. In performing the experiment we
conduct three trials in every drawing in every trials we do click the memo to save the
value we get, until we get the last trial and click the memo again and click the average
area for the last step. They are some factors we can considered in this experiment that
can affects our works, like for example table should be in stable, it should not be
shaking and also person who are performing this make sure his or her hand should not
be shaking when using the planimeter because it can affect the value you will get.Like
what happened to us, at first it easy to us to get the area of the drawing which dont
have curve like square, rectangle,trapezoid and triangle, because it is easy to us to
follow the line, but when we we start to measure the drawing that have fully curve like
circle and ellipse its start to become hard to us to follow the line, the tendency is we
become slow in following the line just to make sure it will not go outside because when
it go outside we will go back to start. And for the values there are some error occurs but
the error depends on the person who are using the planimeter.

CONCLUSION

Therefore I conlude that there are some factors that can affect our experiment first thing
is the human error because some errors depends on the person who are performing the
planimeter 2ND Is roller must be in 90 degree to make sure you will get the right value.
Also errors occurs due to maybe the planimeter has not been in very recent use,so the
condition of the instrument and its adjustment must test before using it or maybe some
parts of the planimeter are not operating well or already damage. So I conclude that we
should first examine the planimeter before using it.

REFERENCES
PHYSICS BOOKS

The Polar Planimeter

A Book by J. Y. Wheatley, 1903.

Adapted and Maintained by Lawrence Leinweber, 2000.