CHAPTER II

Theory of Errors and Basic Adjustment Principles

Tewodros N.
www.tnigatu.wordpress.com
tedynihe@gmail.com
 Theory of Errors and Basic Adjustment Principles
Introduction
• Measurement is an observation carried out to determine the
values of quantities (distances, angles, directions, temperature …)
• Involves physical operations like setting up, caliberating, pointing
matching comparing etc of the instrument.
Fundamental principle of measurement
No measurement is exact and the true value of quantity being
measured is never known.
 Theory of Errors and Basic Adjustment Principles

Introduction
Survey measurement will contain some error due to:

• Lack of perfection by the surveyor in his senses of

seeing touching, hearing.

• Imperfection by the instruments and methods

 Theory of Errors and Basic Adjustment Principles
Measures of quality
• Accuracy: is a parameter indicating the closeness of measured
value to the “true’’ or ‘’exact” value of a quantity. It indicates the
degree of perfection obtained in measurements. The further a
measured value from the its “true” value the less accurate it is.
• Precision or apparent accuracy: is the closeness of the
measured values to one another regardless of their closeness to
the true value.
Theory of Errors and Basic Adjustment Principles
 Theory of Errors and Basic Adjustment Principles
Weight
Is a parameter indicating the relative reliability of
recorded values .
– For measurements carried under similar conditions the
weight is assigned proportional to the number of
observations.
– Also if variance of the measurement is known it is assigned
proportional to 1/variance (the inverse of variance).
 Theory of Errors and Basic Adjustment Principles
Error
– The deviation of the measured value from the “exact” value of a quantity.
sources
– Personal: the error that occurs due to lack of perfection in the surveyor’s
sense of sight, touch, hearing etc during survey activity. Also mistakes
due to carelessness or fatigue of the surveyor are classed under this
category. This type of error can be minimized with care and vigilance by
the part of the surveyor.
– Instrumental: it is the error type that occurs due to imperfection of the
instruments in manufacture and during adjustments and due to wear
and tear by usage. Also included are mistakes due to failure or damage
of the instrument. This type of error can be minimized
– Natural: included under this are errors due to effect of temp, pressure,
humidity, magnetic variation etc. this type of error can be minimized by
applying correction and by carrying out the survey when their effect is
minimal.
 Theory of Errors and Basic Adjustment Principles

Error Types
a) Mistakes
– These actually are not error because they usually are so gross
in magnitude compared to the other two types.
– Blunder made by surveyor or his equipment and can occur at
any stage of the survey (during reading, recording, computing
and plotting).
– Source:
• Carelessness or fatigue by surveyor ƒ
• Failure of equipment
 Theory of Errors and Basic Adjustment Principles

Error Types
a) Mistakes
Examples are:

– Reading wrong scale

• Transposing figure in recording ex 56 instead of 65 or reading 6
instead of 9.
• Omitting digits during recording ex 200 instead of 2000 –

– Sighting towards wrong target etc.

 Theory of Errors and Basic Adjustment Principles
Error Types
a) Mistakes
Some of the procedures and methodologies to detect and eliminate errors
– Taking multiple independent readings and checking for reasonable
consistency ƒ
– Careful checking of both sighting on targets and recording ƒ
– Using simple and quick techniques for verification, applying logic and
common sense ƒ
– Checking and verifying performance of equipment particularly that
with an electronic read out ƒ
– Repeating the measurement with slightly different techniques or
adopting different datum/ index ƒ
– In relatively complex models, applying geometric or algebraic checks to
detect mistakes ƒ
– Simply noting that mistakes have large magnitude so can easily be
detected
 Theory of Errors and Basic Adjustment Principles
Error Types
b) Systematic errors
– These are error types with relatively small magnitude compared to
mistakes, and are result of some systems whose effect can be
expressed in mathematical relations;
– Their magnitude and sign can be estimated (determined).
– Cause of systematic error can be personal, instrumental or physical
and environmental conditions or may be result of choice of
geometric or mathematical model used.
– For constant conditions remain the same as to sign and magnitude:
• Repetition will not help in detection and elimination.
• Correction can be applied to improve the data.
• Proper calibration and adjustment of instruments also contribute to
minimizing their effect.
 Theory of Errors and Basic Adjustment Principles

Significant figures
– Designate those digits in a number that have meaning.

– Can be any one of the digits 1, 2, 3… 9; and 0 is a significant

figure except when used to fix a decimal point.

– Example
• The number 0.00456 has three significant figures and

• The number 45.601 has five significant figures.

 Theory of Errors and Basic Adjustment Principles

Significant figures
– Rules of significant numbers applied to arithmetic operations: ƒ
• Round all the numbers to one more decimal than the least significant number
and add. ƒ
• To subtract one approximate number from another, first round each number
to the same decimal place before subtracting. ƒ
• During multiplication, round the more accurate numbers to one more
significant figure than the least accurate number and the answer should be
given to the same number of significant figures as found in the least accurate
factor. ƒ
• In division, the same rules apply as for multiplication.
 Theory of Errors and Basic Adjustment Principles

Adjustments
– Imply that the given values of the observations must be altered or
adjusted, to make them consistent with the model, leading to the
uniqueness of the estimated unknowns.
– Techniques used to adjust redundant measurements.
• Least squares method
• Other approximate adjustment techniques
– If measurements are of equal quality, or weight, the residual could be divided equally among the
observations.
– If these were not true and the different weights of the observations could be estimated, then each
observation would be assigned a residual that is somewhat different from the others.
Thank You!