Angles and Bearings .

• An angle is defined as the difference in direction

between two lines which meet at a point.
Types of Angles
1. Horizontal Angles
– Formed If the two convergent lines are in a horizontal
plane.
2. Vertical Angles
– If the two convergent lines are in a vertical plane.
3. Interior Angles
– The angle smaller angle in the Inside of the two
intersecting lines.
4. Exterior Angle
– The angle that is outside or convex of the intersecting
lines.
 Units of Angular Measurement.
• Angular or Arc distances are measured
in degrees.
• There are smaller divisions of the
degree.
– These are the minutes- there are 60
minutes in a degree; and the second- there
are 60 seconds in a minute.
• Angles are also sometimes expressed in
equivalent units called grads, and in
radians.
• A full circle of 360 o is equivalent to 400
grads and also equivalent to 2 radians.
Q. What is the equivalent of 143° 33´ 45¨ in:
1. Decimals of Degree
2. Grads
3. Radians.
• The basic equipment for angle
measurement is the protractor.
• All other angle measuring equipment are
based on the principle of the protractor.
• The protractor is a flat circular
transparent plastic disc.
• It is graduated with lines that converge
at the centre to form angles from 0o to
360°.
• In order to use the protractor to measure the angle
between two lines:
1. Place the protractor so that the centre (small hole) is
over the point of intersection of the two lines.
2. Rotate the protractor so that the base line (0
graduation) is exactly along one of the lines (first line).
3. Using the graduated scale, read the angle over the
second line.
4. The value shows that the angle between the two lines
starting from the first line and measuring clockwise is
the value read on the second line.
Notice:
1. Reading on first line =0
2. Angle = Reading on Second line.
3. Therefore Angle = Reading on Second line – 0.
4. This is the same as saying Angle = Reading on
second line – Reading on first line.
Therefore in practice, there is no need to rotate the
protractor to make the first line coincide with zero at
all as the angle can always be found from 2nd line
reading minus 1st line reading.
Using protractor to measure an angle.
B

A
Notice:
• Each reading is not an angle in itself as we have
seen the angle is the difference between two
readings.
• Call each reading a pointing or a circle reading.
• The reading on the first line is called a back
Reading.
• The Reading on the second line is a Forward
reading.
Angle = Forward reading – Back reading.
Q. Senam, in finding the angle between two lines AB and AC
places his protractor with the centre on the intersection
point of the two lines A.

• If line AB coincides with a reading of 123 degrees and line

AC coincides with reading 301 degrees, what is the angle
between the two directions starting from line AB
clockwise?
• What would the angle have been if we start from line AC
instead?
• The main instrument used for angular measurement
is the theodolite:
• The theodolite has two protractors inside its
casing.
• One of the protractors is called a horizontal circle.
• The Second circle which lies vertically at the side is
called a vertical circle.
• When the vertical circle is on the left of the
observer, the instrument is said to be in a face left
position otherwise it is in a face right position.
• To use the theodolite to measure an angle, set the
instrument at the intersection of the two lines that
define the angle.
• One of the lines is from the Instrument station to
the Back sight.
• The second line is also from the instrument station
to the foresight.
Q. How many points do we need to define an angle?
 Bearings.
• The bearing of a line is the clockwise horizontal
angle, measured from the direction of a reference
north line and the line.
• If the reference direction is the magnetic north,
the bearing is called magnetic bearing.
• if the reference north is the grid north, the bearings
are grid bearings.
• If the reference north is the true or geographical
north, the bearings are called true bearings or
azimuths.
• So there are different definitions of the
north:
–The True north,
–The Magnetic north
–A meridian direction adopted by a country
for its mapping called a Grid north.
• As a result, bearings are qualified
according to which north is used as
reference.
• Bearings measured with reference to the true
north are called true bearings.
• Bearings with respect to the Grid north are
grid bearings.
• Bearings measured from a map are Grid
bearings.
• True bearings, Grid bearings and Magnetic
Bearings do not coincide.
• The northern direction indicated by the pin of
a magnetic compass is different from both the
grid north direction and the true north
direction.
• Because of these differences and also the
inaccuracy in the divisions of the magnetic
compass which makes its readings not accurate,
the compass is only used for navigation and also
for very approximate surveys.

• Even where it is used, it is necessary to convert

the magnetic (compass) bearings to grid (map)
bearings and vice versa.

• In order to do so one should find the difference

between the grid and the magnetic north in an area
at a particular season for use in doing the
conversion.
 Designation of Bearings
• Bearings are specified either as:
1. whole circle bearings
2. Quadrant bearings.

• In the whole-circle system, bearings originate from

North and are measured clockwise to the direction
of the line.
• Whole circle bearings are marked 00 to 3600.
• In the Quadrantal system, the bearings are numbered in
the four quadrants defined by the North - South, East –
West axis.
• The bearing itself is always the acute angle as measured
against the North-South axis.
• Thus its value is from 00 to 900 measured from N to E,
or from N to West
• Or from 00 to 900 measured from S to E, or from S to W.
• The cardinal points are drawn and labelled
North, East, South and West.
• Then moving clockwise, from North, the
whole 360º circle would have been divided
into four quadrants of 90º.
• From North to the East is 90º.
• Because quadrant bearings are measured
only as the acute angle made with the
North South axis, they would be
designated as North east, South East,
South West and North-West.
• The quadrant bearing of any line is the
angle it makes with the north-south axis
and it always lie between 0 º and 90 º.
 Conversion of whole circle bearing (wcb)
into quadrant bearing:
1. If the whole circle lies between 0º and
90º, the quadrant bearing has the same
numerical value in the North east
quadrant.
• It is designated N X° E
2. If the wcb lies between 90º and 180º, the
quadrant bearing is (180 – wcb) and lies in the
south east quadrant.
• It is designated S X° E

3. If the wcb lies between 180º and 270º, the

quadrant bearing is ( wcb - 180) and lies in the
south west quadrant.
• It is designated S X° W
4. If the wcb lies between 270º and
360º, the quadrant bearing is (360 -
wcb) and lies in the north west
quadrant.

• It is designated N X° W
 Back Bearings
• The bearing of a line, designated by the
stations between which it lies, is taken as that
from the first station mentioned.
• Thus the bearing of a line OA is the direction
of the line from O to A.
• The direction from A to O is the back bearing.
 Back Bearings

• In the figure OA is the line under consideration. NOS and

N’AS’ are north-south grid lines drawn through O and A
respectively.
• The bearing of OA is the clockwise angle NOA=.
• The bearing of AO, i.e., the back bearing of OA, is equals
(1800 +).
 Angles and Bearings.
• We have seen that angle measurement is done by finding the
difference between two direction readings on a compass.
• We have also seen that Bearing is the angle when the zero is on
one of the lines which coincides with the North.
• In practice when a theodolite is used, it is not easy to determine
the bearing directly but rather the angle between a survey line,
say BC, is determined relative to a known or existing line AB, by
taking directional circle readings along BA and BC.
• Then the clockwise angle ABC is obtained from the difference of
the two circle readings.
• The bearing of the line BC is then deduced by calculation.
 Plan Scales
• The results of a survey are shown in a
diagram on a flat paper called a map.
• Since the paper on which this
representation is done is limited in
extent, a strategy is adopted for the
representation using a ratio.
• This ratio is called a scale.
 Plan Scales
Definition: A map scale is the ratio between a distance on
a map and the corresponding distance in the terrain.

• The scale is an expression of how much the area

represented has been reduced on the map. Maps take up
less physical space than the area that they represent.
This reduction in size is reflected by the scale of the
map. The scale is often used as a primary means of
categorising maps - from large-scale maps of 1: 10,000
to atlases of 1:1,000,000.
• Map scales are represented by three
methods:
• Verbal scale expresses in words, the
relationship between a map distance and
a ground distance.
– eq: One inch represents 16 miles.-
• Here it is implied that one-inch on the map,
represents 16 miles on the ground.
• The second type of scale representation
is a graphic, or bar
• Bar scales is probably the most common kind of scale
found on maps, perhaps because their graphical nature
makes them easily understood.
• Another great advantage of bar scales is that they
remain correct if the map is reduced or enlarged
• Q1. How can this one be used to measure ground
distances from a map?
• Q2. Why do you think this should be preferred to other
representation methods?
• Q3. What happens to the scale when there is an
expansion in the paper? Would this expansion affect
measurements made from the map based on the bar
scale?
• The third type of scale is a representative fraction,
or ratio scale.
• A representative fraction, or RF, shows the
relationship between one of any unit on the map
and one of the same unit on the ground.
• RFs may be shown as an actual fraction, for
example 1/24,000, but are usually written with a
colon, as in 1:24,000.
• In this example, one unit of any length (one mm,
one cm, one inch, one foot, etc.) on the map
represents 24,000 of those same units on the
ground (24,000 mm, 24,000 cm, 24,000", 24,000',
etc.).
 Conversion of scales.
Q 1:
• If 1 centimetre on a map represents 100 metres on the
ground, what will be the RF?
Dis tan ce on Map 1
Scale= = = 1:10000
dis tan ce on ground 10000
• Q2
• If the RF of a map is I: 2400 how many units on the
ground do 2 map units represent?

Dis tan ce on Map 1

=
dis tan ce on ground 2400
• Distance on ground = distance on map X 2400 = 4800
units.
• Q3 If the RF on a map is 1:2500 how
far apart would two points be on the
map if their actual ground distance is
500 metres?
 Conversion of areas
Recall that the area is given by LXB.
We also know that:
dis tan ce on map
RF  Thus if we square both sides of the
dis tan ce on ground

equation (assuming a square area) then we can write

that:
Map Dis tan ce 2 planArea
RF 
2
or else RF 
2

ground dis tan ce 2 GroundArea

Therefore if the RF on a plan is known, then

Plan Area = Ground Area x (RF)2
Q4
The scale of a plan is 1:50. If an area
on the plan measures 2 by 3 units
what is the corresponding ground
area?
–Plan Area = Ground Area x (RF) 2
–Ground area = 6 X 502
= 15000 sq. units.
Q5
An area was measured on a plan as, 120 mm x 145 mm. Calculate
the ground area in metres if the scale is
(a) 1:2000
(b) 1: 500
Q6
A plot of land was surveyed and found to have an area of 1250 m2. If
it is plotted on a plan 1:500, what will be the plan area in mm2?
Q7.
A plot of land is in the form of a rectangle in which the length is twice
the breadth. When surveyed, it was found to have an area of
16,722.54 m2. Calculate the length of the sides as drawn on a plan
whose scale is 1: 10 560.
= 15000 sq. units.