Surveying for Construction /

CVEN 270
Topic 2
Units, Precision, Accuracy and Errors

Dr. Charitha Dias

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 Surveying measurements
- Measuring distances and angles from a known reference
are fundamental surveying operations.
- Five common types of surveying measurements
1. Distance
1.1. Horizontal distance
1.2. Vertical distance (elevation)
1.3. Slope distance
2. Angle
2.1. Horizontal angle
2.2. Vertical angle

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 Measurement units `
In surveying, the most commonly employed
units are for:
- Length or distance
- Area
- Volume
- Angle

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 Distance
English Prefixes
 1 foot = 12 inches
 1 yard = 3 feet
 1 inch = 2.54 cm
 1 rod = 1 pole = 1 perch = 16.5 feet
 1 vara = 33 inches
 1 Gunter’s Chain = 66 feet = 100
links = 4 rods
 1 mile = 5280 feet = 80 Gunter’s
Chain
 1 fathom = 6 ft

Metric Prefixes
 1 kilometer (km) = 1000 meters (m)
 1 millimeter (mm) = 0.001 meter
 1 centimeter (cm) = 0.01 meter
 1 decimeter (dm) = 0.1 meter
 1 m = 10 dm = 100 cm = 1000 mm 4
Area

Metric Prefixes
1 hectare = 10000 m2

English Prefixes
1 acre = 43560 ft2 = 66*660 ft2 = 10 square chain
1 ft2 = 144 inch2
1 yard2 = 9 ft2

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 Volume
• Metric Prefixes
1 m3 = 1000000 cm3 = 1000 liters

• English Prefixes
1 yard3 = 27 ft3
1 acre-foot = 43,560 ft3

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 Angles
Units
 Degrees (), Minutes (‘), and Seconds (“)
 Radian (rad or c)
 Gradian (ᵍ or gon)
 Turn/ revolution

2 rad = 360 = 400 gon = 1 Turn

1 rad  57 17’ 44.8”  57.2958
0.01745 rad  1
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Measurement Errors

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 What is error?
Definition of error (ei): difference between an observed
value (xi) for a quantity and its true value (x)
𝑒𝑖=𝑥 𝑖 − 𝑥
The true value can never be determined and thus the true
error as well. Thus the true value is replaced with the mean
(average) of several measurements (). Then, the error is
estimated as:
𝑣 𝑖=𝑥 𝑖 − 𝑥^
𝑣𝑖 is called “residual”
^𝑥 is called “most probable value” 9
 Sources of Errors
- Natural errors: Due to variations in wind, temperature,
humidity, atmospheric pressure, atmospheric refraction,
gravity, and magnetic declination etc.
E.g., Length of a steel tape can be varied with changes in
temperature

- Instrumental errors: Due to any imperfection in the

instrument

- Personal errors (human errors): Due to the mistakes by

humans.
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 Blunders
- A blunder (or gross error) is a significant, unpredictable
mistake caused by human error due to carelessness,
miscommunication, fatigue, or poor judgment.
E.g.,
- Improperly or incorrectly leveling the surveying
instrument
- Entering an incorrect control point number in the data
collector
- Entering wrong values, such as, “15.13” as “50.13”

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 Types of Errors
- Systematic error (bias): caused by the equipment,
observation methods, and certain environmental factors. As
long as system conditions remain constant, the systematic
errors will remain constant.
 Can be mathematically adjusted
- Can be minimized by;
Properly leveling survey instrument and targets
Entering the appropriate environmental correction factors
in the data collector
Periodically calibrating the surveying equipment
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 Types of Errors
E.g.: Correcting error in the length of a tape:
𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑎𝑝𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡h
𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡h 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒=𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡h ×
𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑎𝑝𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡h ( 𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑒

)2

Example:
a line was found to be 376.4 m when measured with a tape
of 20 m length. However after checking the tape length was
found to be 20.04 m. What is the correct length of the line?
Answer: 377.2 m 13
 Types of Errors
- Random error (Accidental error): are those remain in
measured values after mistakes and systematic errors have
been eliminated. They are caused by factors beyond the
control of the observer.
- Obey the laws of probability.
- Correction factors cannot be computed and applied
- Can be minimized by;
Better instruments
Properly designed field procedures
Making repeated measurements
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 Types of Errors
Measurements True value Measurements

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Occurrence of Random Errors

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Probability and Statistics

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 Probability and Statistics
- Standard deviation / standard error (SE) of one
measurement:

√ ∑ ( 𝑦 𝑖− 𝑌 ) 2
𝑣
𝐸 𝑖=𝜎 = =
√𝑛 −1 𝑛 −1

- Standard error (SE) of the mean (RMS):

√ ∑ ( 𝑦 𝑖 −𝑌 ) 2
^ 𝜎
𝐸 𝑚= 𝜎 = =
√𝑛 𝑛 (𝑛 −1)

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 Example
1. Following repeated measurements of a distance were
obtained.
51.29, 51.31, 51.39, 51.34, 51.30, 51.27, 51.35, 51.30,
51.33, 51.34
Estimate mean, standard deviation and error of the mean
for the dataset

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Occurrence of Random Errors
Example

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21
Frequency table of residuals
Class interval: 0.7”

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Histogram and frequency polygon of residuals

Follow the Normal

Distribution

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 Confidence interval of an observation:
Confidence Interval 𝒙=𝒙 ± 𝒛 𝝈
Confidence interval of the mean:
𝝈
𝒙=𝒙 ± 𝒛
√𝒏
This interval may
contain the true value

Most Probable Error = 50 % Error = ± 0.6745σ

Nowadays, surveyors are interested in the maximum
error ( 90% ~ 95%) = (± 1.6449σ ~ ± 1.9599σ) 25
Example 1

Blunder is an error
larger than the 99%
error.

√
∑ 𝟐
( 𝒚 𝒊− 𝒀 )
𝝈=
𝒏−𝟏

𝝈=
√
( 𝟎.𝟑𝟔𝟒𝟐 ) 𝟐
𝟏𝟐− 𝟏
=𝟎.𝟏𝟖𝒎
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Example 2
Determine the 50th and 95th percentile error in distance?

What is the standard error of the mean and what is its 95th
percentile confidence interval?
= 0.0336 ft
^ =152.91 ± 1.9599× 0.0336=(152.84 , 152.98)
𝐶𝐼 𝑚= 𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 ± 𝑧 𝜎 27
 Precision and Accuracy
- Precision:
Refers to the degree of refinement or consistency of a
group of observations.
Associated with small standard deviation
Degree of perfection used in the survey

- Accuracy:
Denotes the absolute nearness of observed quantities to
their true values.
Degree of perfection obtained in the results
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 Precision and Accuracy

Results are precise, Results not precise, Results are precise,

but not accurate and not accurate and accurate

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 Precision and Accuracy

Standard deviation or variance can be used as a

measure of precision 30
 Propagation of Random Errors
Let a, b, c, …, n be observed values containing errors Ea, Eb,
Ec, …, En , respectively.
Also let Z be a quantity (say, an area or volume) derived by
computation using these observed quantities in a function
f, such that,

Then, assuming a, b, c, …, n are independent quantities, the

error in Z is estimated as;

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 Propagation of Random Errors
1. Error of sum
Prove;
if

2. Error of product
Prove;
if
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Example 3
The radius of a circular tract of land is measured to be 40.25m
with an estimated 95th percentile standard error of ± 0.01m.
Calculate the area (A) of the tract of land and its estimated
standard error?
What is the standard error in the area?
R = 40.25 m
ER = 0.01

A = pi*R^2 = pi*40.25^2

(Answer = ±2.53 m2)

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Example 4
The radius of the base of a cone is measured as 14.000 ±
0.002 cm. The height of the cone is 35.000 ± 0.018 cm.
What is the error in the volume?

Note: Volume of a cone =

(Answer = ±4.226 cm3)

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Example 5
For a rectangular lot, the observations of sides A and B with
their 95% error are (252.46 ±0.053) and (605.08 ±0.072) ft,
respectively. Calculate;
1. the area and the expected 95% error of
the area
2. and, the expected 90% error of the area

Answer:
1. ± = ±36.9 ft2
2. SE95% = Zσ
Then ,σ = 36.9/1.9599 = 18.827 ft2
90% Standard error of the area = 1.6449 X 18.827 = ± 30.968 ft2 35
Example 6
A distance of 1000 ft is to be taped with an error of not more
than ± 0.10 ft. Determine the permissible error of a tape of
100 ft long.

(Answer = ±0.03 ft)

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Example 7
Suppose that an angle can be measured with error σ = ±3” in
one repetition by using a certain instrument. What is the
number of repetition required to determine the angle with an
error of ± 0.8”?

(Answer = 14)
𝜎
^=
𝐸 𝑚= 𝜎
√𝑛

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