While these simple surveying problems are easily solved, the prospector should never forget that mine surveying requires skill, experience and accuracy. He will do well always to call in the service of a mining engineer should his "prospect" ever become a full-fledged mine, as little errors of direction are particularly costly mistakes when they occur underground.
Should you wish to lay off a certain acreage as a square, proceed as follows:
As there are ten square chains to one acre, multiply the content in acres by 10 to reduce to square chains. Then find the square root of this number of square chains, and that will be the length of a side of the square required. For instance:
To lay off 25 acres as a square:
25 times 10 equals 250 square chains.
Whose square root is 15.81.
Ans. The plot must be 15 chains 81 links square.
Seventy average paces is almost exactly equal to the side of a square acre.
If you know the content and length of one of the sides of a rectangular figure it is easy to lay it off. Thus:
Given a claim 10 chains long, how wide must it be to cover 5 acres?