BCE Surveying & Geomatics 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In plane surveying, which coordinate system is commonly used in the United States for state-based mapping?
- Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM)
- State Plane Coordinate System (SPCS) (Correct answer)
- Geographic coordinate system
- Polar coordinate system
Correct answer: State Plane Coordinate System (SPCS)
The State Plane Coordinate System (SPCS) is a set of 124 geographic zones used in the United States for high-accuracy surveys at the state and local level.
Question 2: What is the purpose of a bench mark (BM) in surveying?
- To mark property boundaries
- To serve as a permanent reference point of known elevation (Correct answer)
- To measure horizontal distances
- To record GPS satellite positions
Correct answer: To serve as a permanent reference point of known elevation
A bench mark is a permanent, stable monument with a precisely determined elevation used as a reference point for leveling surveys.
Question 3: Which error in leveling surveys accumulates proportionally to the square root of the distance traveled?
- Systematic error
- Blunder
- Random error (Correct answer)
- Instrumental error
Correct answer: Random error
Random errors in leveling accumulate in proportion to the square root of the number of setups or distance, following statistical principles of error propagation.
Question 4: The magnetic declination in surveying accounts for the difference between which two directions?
- True north and magnetic north (Correct answer)
- Grid north and true north
- Magnetic north and grid north
- True east and magnetic east
Correct answer: True north and magnetic north
Magnetic declination is the angle between true (geographic) north and magnetic north at a given location, which varies with location and time.
Question 5: In route surveying, a simple circular curve is defined by which primary parameter?
- Length of curve
- Radius or degree of curvature (Correct answer)
- Tangent length
- External distance
Correct answer: Radius or degree of curvature
A simple circular curve is primarily defined by its radius R (or equivalently, the degree of curvature D), from which all other curve elements are derived.
Question 6: Which photogrammetric technique uses overlapping aerial photographs to generate 3D topographic data?
- Remote sensing
- Stereoscopy (Correct answer)
- Lidar scanning
- Satellite imagery analysis
Correct answer: Stereoscopy
Stereoscopy uses the parallax between overlapping aerial photographs viewed from two different positions to reconstruct the 3D geometry of the terrain.
BCE Surveying & Geomatics 2
In plane surveying, which coordinate system is commonly used in the United States for state-based mapping?