After a couple of inefficient attempts at tree location, I found it was easier to flag all of the desired trees before breaking out the instrument, an...

The "uy" is silent. Little-known fact.

Made another check. If you're specifically interested in British English, then it might be different.It's "levelling" in the 3rd edition of Geodesy (...

In American English: leveling.Universal agreement among the following sources:ACSM. 2005. Definitions of Surveying and Associated Terms.ASCE, ACSM, AS...

> ... when it doesn't work the magic he wants.The word "magic" has been used elsewhere to describe the incantation nature of the legal arguments us...

Maybe a helpful analogy:Suppose a potential client asked for a survey of his 0.25-acre lot, and explained that the sole reason for the survey was to t...

Dowsing, with success better than random guessing, definitely qualifies for Randi's prize. It doesn't matter whether the dowser himself regards it as...

In controlled, double-blind tests, dowsing doesn't perform any better than random guessing.There are some relatively simple tests that can be done to ...

16 D&RDave,Are you agreeing with Paul that transits measure small angles less precisely than larger angles?- Doug

Hello, Did I Not Say With A Transit ?> I brought this up because I was considering the original source of why 15° was a weak angle. That is specifi...

For a traverse, there is nothing special about 15° or any other angle."Weak angles" near 0 and 180 were a concern in triangulation networks, however, ...

Jeff,You're not missing anything. I'm surprised at how much misinformation has been presented here.- Doug

KrisKris,I'm trying to get an idea of what your objection is to the traverse you described.If you had to survey that 300' x 4000' rectangular tract, a...

This topic deserves a more detailed discussion, because the myth is so prevalent. I don't have enough time this week, though.Maybe this weekend we co...