SURVEYING LAB

FIELD WORK NO. 8

CLOSE COMPASS TRAVERSE

(TITLE OF THE EXPERIMENT)

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DATE PERFORMED DATE OF SUBMISSION

PREPARED BY: PREPARED FOR:

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(Name of Student) (Name of Instructor)

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(Course/Student Number)
FIELDWORK NO. 8 Group No.: __________________
Date: ________________________ Location:____________________
Time/Temp.: __________________ Weather: ___________________

TITLE: CLOSE COMPASS TRAVERSE

OBJECTIVE/S: a) To determine the magnetic bearing of each line of an open compass

traverse.

b) To learn how to adjust close compass traverse.

EQUIPMENTS:

Fig. 8.1 Brunton Pocket Fig.8.2 Steel Tape Fig. 8.3 Range Poles Fig. 8.4 Markers
Compass

PROCEDURES:

a. Establish at least five traverse stations on the field assigned to be surveyed. Call these
stations A, B, C and so forth.

b. Set up and level the instrument at A and release the needle of the compass so that it will
swing freely on its pivot.

c. Sight the last traverse station and read the magnetic bearing. Record this as the back
bearing of the last line in the traverse.

d. Sight station B and read the compass box. Record this as the forward bearing of line AB.

e. Transfer the instrument to B and sight station A. Read the compass box and record this
as the back bearing of line AB.

f. Turn towards the direction of C, then read and record the forward bearing of line BC.

g. Transfer to C and sight on B. Read and record the back bearing of line BC, then sight on D
and also read and record the forward bearing of line CD.
h. Proceed to the next station and repeat the same process until the last traverse station is
occupied and a forward bearing of the last line has been read and recorded.

i. With the steel tape, measure the length of each line in the traverse twice and record the
mean as the actual length of the line.

j. The interior angle at each station of the traverse can be computed easily from the
observed forward and back bearings taken from the station regardless of whether or not
the needle is affected locally. A carefully prepared sketch is important since from it the
required calculations will be obvious.

k. The angular error of closure is determined by subtracting the sum of the computed
interior angles of the traverse from 180 (n-2), where n is the sum of sides in the
traverse. Note that the computed value may be a positive or negative quantity, and the
resulting sign should be considered in all succeeding computations.

l. The correction for each computed interior angle is determined by dividing the angular
error of closure by the number of traverse stations. This computed value is then added
algebraically to each computed interior angle to determine the corresponding adjusted
interior angle.

m. Go over the observed bearings and determine which line in the traverse is free from
local attraction or which could be arbitrarily chosen as the best line. The adjustment of
traverse lines affected by local attraction is then made by starting from the unaffected or
best line.

n. The forward and back bearing of all the other lines in the traverse affected by the local
attraction can then be easily computed and adjusted by again drawing a sketch thus
making all calculations obvious.

o. Tabulate observed and adjusted values accordingly.

ILLUSTRATIONS:

Point AB Point BC Point CD

Point DE Point EF Point FA

DATA AND TABULATION:

Table 8.1. Adjusted Interior Angle

OBSERVED BEARING COMPUTED ADJUSTED INT.

LINE LENGTH STA CORR
FORWARD BACK INT. ANGLE ANGLE

AB
BC
CD
DE
EF
FA

Table 8.2. Adjusted Bearing

ADJUSTED BEARING
LENGTH
LINE FORWARD BACK
AB
BC
CD
DE
EF
FA
COMPUTATION:

CONCLUSION:

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RECOMMENDATION:

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