GEE142

Curves and Earthworks

Area Computations

Contents:

1. Area by offsets from a straight line 2

2. Trapezoidal Rule 2

3. Simpson’s One-Third Rule 4

Area by offsets from a straight line

Tracts of land are not always bounded by straight lines and it is often necessary to determine
areas that are sometimes bounded by irregular lines or curves. For instance, a property boundary
may be represented by the centerline of a stream or it may be bounded by a winding road. It
would not be feasible for such cases to run a traverse along the boundary lines. To plot the
boundary, it is often more practical to establish a base line conveniently near the irregular or
curve boundary and measure offset distances from the base line to the boundary.

Offsets are snort distances measured perpendicular to a reference or baseline. They are usually
taken at regular intervals if the curved boundary does not vary significantly. However, when
there are abrupt changes in the boundary, it is advisable that offsets depends to a great extent on
existing conditions of the terrain. It will be noted that when offsets are taken sufficiently close
together the error in the measurement of the area would be small as compared with the
inaccuracies of the measured offsets.

There are two common rules used in determining areas of irregular or curved boundaries. One
such rule is the Trapezoidal Rule and the other is Simpson’s One-Third Rule. For a particular
area, when a large discrepancy in area is computed by the two methods, it would be due to
offsets which may have been spaced too far apart.

Trapezoidal Rule.

The assumption made in using the trapezoidal rule is that the ends of the offsets in the boundary
line are assumed to be connected by straight lines, thereby forming a series of trapezoids. When
the offsets are taken fairly close together and when the curves are flat, no considerable error is
introduced by this assumption. In each trapezoid base in the figure shown the adjacent offsets are
taken as the bases and the common interval between offsets as the altitude.
The offsets are assumed to be spaced at regular intervals and the area of the whole tract equals
the areas of the enclosed trapezoids. Thus, in the figure, the area are bounded by the irregular
boundary (from C to D), the base line (AB), and the offsets (h1 and hn) is determined as follows

In Eq. (1), it will be noted that the first and the last offsets occur only once and the other
intermediate offsets occur twice; also, the interval between offsets (d) occurs as a factor in every
term. By factoring out d, and simplifying the above equation, the area is obtained by the
following equation

Where:

A = summation of the areas of the trapezoids comprising the total area

d = common spacing between offsets

n = number of offsets

h1 = end (first) offset

hn = end (last) offset

h2, h3, etc = intermediate offsets

hn-1 = last intermediate offset

Eq. (20) applies to n consecutive offsets spaced at a distance d apart. The equation may be
expressed conveniently in the form of the following rule: Add the average of the end offsets to
the sum of the intermediate offset. The product of the quantity thus determined and the common
interval between offsets is the required area. If the interval between offsets is not equal the
following equation is used
For most areas bounded by the irregular curves, the trapezoidal rule is the simplest to apply and
could provide sufficiently accurate results provided the measurements are taken properly. It must
be understood, however, that areas computed by this rule are only approximate values. The
accuracy of the trapezoidal rule increases with a corresponding increase in the number of offsets
as this becomes time-consuming. Also, the accuracy varies with the shape of the curved
boundary. Calculated areas will be concave upward, and slightly smaller for trapezoids where the
boundary line is concave downward. If the boundary line has about the same number of convex
and concave arcs, the expected errors in the areas between the offsets may become well
compensated.

Simpson’s One-Third Rule.

Simpson’s One-Third Rule is based on the assumption that the curved boundary consists of a
series of parabolic arcs, where each arc is continuous over three adjacent offsets that are equally
spaced. When there is an even number of offsets, the portion of all but the part between the last
two offsets, the portion of all but the part between the last two offsets may be determined
separately by assuming it to be a single trapezoid.

The rule also assumes that the series of parabolic curves will approximate the boundary line
more closely than a series of straight lines, and that it will also yield an area which will be more
accurate. Simpson’s one-third rule is derived by passing a parabola through the extremities of
any three consecutive offsets. The area of the parabolic segment formed by the chord and the
curve is taken as two-thirds the area of the circumscribed parallelogram bounded by the parallel
tangent, the chord, and the extension of the outermost offsets (figure 45-3). The area within the
two strips is then determined by adding the area of the segment to the area of the trapezoid
formed by the first and the third offsets. Thus
Where:

Area = area of the tract bounded by the curved boundary, the base line, and the end offsets

d = common spacing between offsets

n = number of offsets

h1 = end (first) offset

hn = end (last) offset

h3, h5, h7, etc = odd-numbered intermediate offsets

h2, h4, h6, etc = even-numbered intermediate offsets

hn-1 = last even-numbered offset

hn-2 = last odd-numbered offset

In Eq. (6), it will be noted that all offsets with odd-numbered subscripts, except the first and the
last, are multiplied by 2, and all offsets with even-numbered subscripts are multiplied by 4. The
equation may also be expressed conveniently as: The area is equal to one-third of the common
interval between offsets, multiplied by the sum of the first and last offsets, plus two times
the sum of the other odd offsets, plus four times the sum of the even offsets.

When the curved boundary is predominantly convex or concave, the curved boundary is
predominantly convex or concave, Simpson’s one-third rule is expected to give a more accurate
value of the area. Also, depending on the type of curve, the results obtained by this rule are either
larger or smaller than those obtained by using the trapezoid rule.