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CHAPTER IV.

Measurement of Plane Areas.

II. Measurement of Small Areas.

Accuracy of Results.

With the Planimeter as with the Transit, and in fact with most measuring instruments, almost any degree of accuracy in the result of the measurement of any given quantity may be obtained by the method of repetition. Instead of taking the Reading due to one tracing of the given figure, the tracer is made to trace the figure any desired number of times, and the total Reading of the instrument due to the number of tracings made, divided by the number of tracings, is taken as the true Reading.

Space will not be taken here to discuss the relative or absolute accuracy of Planimeter measurements, as the question of accuracy is taken up and fully discussed in Chap. XI. Suffice it to say that in the vast majority of cases the Polar Planimeter, by the simple tracing of a plane figure as just described, will give its area with a degree of accuracy entirely impossible by any other known means.

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