MAPÚA UNIVERSITY

Muralla St. Intramuros, Manila

School of Civil, Environmental and Geological Engineering

FIELD WORK NO.1

DETERMINING THE POLYGONAL AREA OF A
PIECE OF LAND USING
FUNDAMENTALS ONLY THE
OF SURVEYING FIELDMETER

TAPE

FUNDAMENTALS OF SURVEYING FIELD

COURSE AND SECTION: CE120-02F / A1

SUBMITTED BY:

SN: 2

NAME: Tulay, Joseph Patrick I. STUDENT NUMBER: 2016141644

GROUP NO: 1

DATE OF FIELDWORK: August 30, 2019

DATE OF SUBMISSION: September 25, 2019

SUBMITTED TO: GRADE

PROFESSOR: ENGR. BIENVENIDO CERVANTES

INTRODUCTION

Measuring Tape is a basic instrument as surveyor to measuring the

Horizontal, vertical or slope distance. In past years, the pacing method is one of
techniques to measuring distance in easy and short time possible. However, in the
presence of modern convenient instruments used in large-scale measurements—it
may be structural or field—pacing has been quite overlooked by many to be an
outdated and inaccurate method in surveying. However, pacing can still be one
useful tool for a civil engineer or surveyor, as though it may be reliant on
estimates, at least the engineer will still be able to familiarize the area and material
that he will be working it, without being too obvious that he is actually doing
measurements.

OBJECTIVE

 To know to how measuring distance and area with measuring tape.

 Understand the concepts of measurement without using surveying
equipment.
 We conducted an experiment in measuring the distance and area of 5-sides
of triangle or pentagon by using measuring tape. As the date complete, we
compute the area of pentagon by using heron’s formula.

TOOLS AND EQUIPMENTS

 Measuring tape-Instrument to use for measuring distance.

 Range pole- To use for marking the position of surveying station.

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 Figure 1. Measuring tape Figure 2. Range pole

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Designate the locations of 5 vertices of the polygonal field inside the school.
These vertices are to be named A, B, C, D and E.
2. Using triangulation method, divide the polygonal field area into 3 triangular
components called A1, A2 and A3.
3. By determining the area, students must first determine the sides of the
polygon including its diagonal side using the meter tape.
4. Using Heron’s Formula: A=√ s ( s−a)(s−b)( s−c ), determine the area for each
triangular component.
5. Sum up all the areas of each triangular component to get the total area of the
polygon (pentagon).

FINAL DATA SHEET

FIELDWORK 1
B

E
C

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 Line AE = 38.25 m
Line AB = 7m
Line AC = 34.15m
Line CB = 36.7m
Line CE = 7.15m

Line CD = 24.7m
Line ED = 23.75m

COMPUTATION

FOR AREA1.

S = 24.7m + 7.15m + 23.75m

2

S = 27.8m

Area = (√[(27. 8) ( 27. 8−24.7 ) ( 27.8−7.15 ) ( 27.8−23.75 ) ]¿

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 Area = 84.90m2

FOR AREA 2.

S = 7.15m + 38.25m + 34.15m

2

S = 39.775m

Area = (√[(39.775) ( 39.775−7.15 ) (39.775−38.25 ) ( 39.775−34.15 ) ]¿

Area = 105.51m2

FOR AREA 3.

S = 34.15 + 7m + 36.7m
2

S = 38.925m

Area = (√[(38.925) ( 38.925−34.15 ) (38.925−7 ) ( 38.925−36.7 ) ]¿

Area = 114.90m2

Total area of the pentagon:

A1 + A2 +A3 = Apentagon

84.30 m2 + 105.51 m2 + 114.90 m2 = 305.31 m2

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 B

E
C
The total area of the pentagon is 305.31 m2

DISCUSSION

For this fieldwork, we were instructed to get the area of a 5-sided polygon
or pentagonal lot by measuring the distance using measuring tape in each vertices
of the polygon. We also create diagonal lines and measure it to form a triangles
that we need to compute the area of each triangles by using Heron’s formula. In
first area of a triangle, we get the value of area where in 84.90m 2, the second area
of a triangle is 105.51m2 and lastly, the third area is equivalent to 114.90m 2. After
getting the area of each triangles get the total area of polygon by sum up the all
area of a triangles and it obtain 305.31m2.

As we compared the area of pentagonal using measuring tape and theodolites

the values are might closer since we may get some errors that affect the true values
of the measurements.

Problems in this fieldwork includes the sagging of tape and the inaccurate
elevation from point A to point B. Also, we were interrupted by cars that would
pass by during our fieldwork hence our fieldwork took longer than expected.

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CONCLUSION

We have measured the sides of a 5-sided polygon or pentagon manually

using the measuring tape and range poles, but in the professional work our
surveyor they committed errors because of usually human errors that encounter
during fields work. The bending of the measuring tape during the field work is a
big problem in this engineering surveying method. The measuring tape still gave us
a not-so-accurate measurement because of the sags during the process. Acquiring
the lengths/horizontal distance of the sides of the pentagonal lot using this
engineering method may be difficult but it is crucial for us to know the basic
techniques in surveying a field.

We use Heron’s formula to compute the area of triangles that we created in the
5-sided polygon. After acquiring the horizontal distances from the vertex of
polygon, we measured 2 diagonal lines from one point to form 2 triangles. Having
the measurements of the 3 sides of the 3 triangles inside the pentagonal lot, we
have computed for total area of the pentagonal lot by using the Heron’s formula.
After computing all the area of triangles, get the summation or adding all of area
and acquire the total area of pentagon.

This fieldworks help understand the basic measuring distance and area using
measuring tape and range pole without surveying equipment. However, this
method can committed many error because of some unexpected event.

RECOMMENDATION

I recommend that be sure in looking the right measurement in

measure tape because students are confuse sometimes that can cause
error in the data. Also, the next field works must be done early in the
morning and not in the noon time until afternoon because the cause of
weather can affect the fieldwork. The students tend to be lazy because of
the heat that they are experiencing and may not cooperate well in the field
work.

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DOCUMENTATION

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