Technological University of the Philippines

College of Engineering

Department of Mechanical Engineering

ME 5L
EXPERIMENT NO. 3
In
Mechanical Engineering Laboratory 1
“MEASUREMENT OF AREAS USING PLANIMETER”

Submitted by:
TANGONAN, BRYAN RONHELL A.
BSME-4B

Submitted to:
ENGR. MANUEL L. EUROPEO
 I. OBJECTIVES
The specific objectives of this experiment are to:
 Demonstrate the procedure in measuring the area of regular and irregular shapes and sizes
using planimeter.
 Know the precautionarymeasures in using a planimeter.
 Measure the area of regular and irregular shape and size using digital planimeter.
 Analyze the data taken at different shapes and sizes.
 Familiarize with the procedure of calculating the theoretical areas of regular and irregular
shapes.
 Discuss the uncertainty of the results.
 Compare the theoretical and experimental value of the gathered data.
 Interpret the gathered data.

II. INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOME

What the students have learned after the experiment:

1. The students who conducted the experiment were able to demonstrate the procedure in

measuring the area of regular and irregular shapes and sizes using planimeter.

2. The students who conducted the experiment were able to use the planimeter with ease,

resulting to a more accurate gathered value.

3. The students who conducted the experiment were able to measure the area of regular and

irregular shapes accurately.

4. The students were able to analyze and discuss the cause of percent difference in the

experiment.

5. The students have a better understanding regarding the difference in the result of the

experimental value and the theoretical/calculated value.

 III. DISCUSSION
PLANIMETER
 A planimeter, also known as a platometer, is a
measuring instrument used to determine the
area of an arbitrary two-dimensional shape.
 The calculations for a regular shaped surface
area are easy to perform as compared to the
area calculations of an irregular shaped surface
as it involves complex mathematical concepts
and calculations. The area calculation of an
irregular shaped surface becomes difficult as it makes use of area integration concepts. To
overcome the complex and difficult process of integration of this irregular shaped area, a
mechanical device called planimeter is used. Thus, Planimeter sometimes is also referred as an
integrator tool that helps in converting irregular shaped geographical area into numerical values
which can be analyzed and plotted on a sheet of paper. A Planimeter consists of:
 Two arms hinged at a point.
 Tracing arm with main scale.
 A vernier caliper scale
 Rotating disc and rotating drum with vernier scale.
 Pivot arm with a ball point at one end which can be fixed and a cylindrical weight with pin
at the other end.
 Magnifying lens.
 During the use of planimeter, the pivot arm is pivoted at one point on the irregular shape
whereas the other arm called as the tracing arm is moved along the boundary of the irregular
shape whose area needs to be determined. Calculations are read on the vernier scale and
noted down for further analysis on a mathematical model.

TYPES OF PLANIMETERS
There are five types of planimeters available however all operate in a similar way. They are:

1. Linear Planimeter
 - In linear planimeter, wheels permit measurement of long areas without restriction.
- The working of the linear planimeter may be explained by measuring the area of a
rectangle ABCD (see image). Moving with the pointer from A to B the arm EM moves
through the yellow parallelogram, with area equal to PQ×EM. This area is also equal to
the area of the parallelogram A"ABB". The measuring wheel measures the distance PQ
(perpendicular to EM). Moving from C to D the arm EM moves through the green
parallelogram, with area equal to the area of the rectangle D"DCC". The measuring
wheel now moves in the opposite direction, subtracting this reading from the former. The
movements along BC and DA are the same but opposite, so they cancel each other with
no net effect on the reading of the wheel. The net result is the measuring of the
difference of the yellow and green areas, which is the area of ABCD.

2. Polar Planimeter

- The polar planimeter is a mechanical device for measuring areas of regions in the plane
which are bounded by smooth boundaries. The measurement is based directly on
Green's theorem in multi-variable calculus: the planimeter integrates a line integral of a
vector field which has constant curl.
- The images show the principles of a linear and a polar planimeter. The pointer M at one
end of the planimeter follows the contour C of the surface S to be measured. For the
linear planimeter the movement of the “elbow” E is restricted to the y-axis. For the polar
planimeter the “elbow" is connected to an arm with its other endpoint O at a fixed
position. Connected to the arm ME is the measuring wheel with its axis of rotation
parallel to ME. A movement of the arm ME can be decomposed into a movement
perpendicular to ME, causing the wheel to rotate, and a movement parallel to ME,
causing the wheel to skid, with no contribution to its reading.
3. Amsler Polar Planimeter
- An Amsler Polar Planimeter instrument used to
measure the area of an arbitrary shape. The
planimeter traces the shape of the graph with
respect to the origin. The wheel at the hinge
shows the measurement of the area
- The Amsler (polar) type consists of a two-bar
linkage. At the end of one link is a pointer,
used to trace around the boundary of the shape to be measured. The other end of the
linkage pivots freely on a weight that keeps it from moving. Near the junction of the two
links is a measuring wheel of calibrated diameter, with a scale to show fine rotation, and
worm gearing for an auxiliary turns counter scale. As the area outline is traced, this
wheel rolls on the surface of the drawing. The operator sets the wheel, turns the counter
to zero, and then traces the pointer around the perimeter of the shape. When the tracing
is complete, the scales at the measuring wheel show the shape's area.
- When the planimeter's measuring wheel moves perpendicular to its axis, it rolls, and this
movement is recorded. When the measuring wheel moves parallel to its axis, the wheel
skids without rolling, so this movement is ignored. That means the planimeter measures
the distance that its measuring wheel travels, projected perpendicularly to the measuring
wheel's axis of rotation. The area of the shape is proportional to the number of turns
through which the measuring wheel rotates.

4. Digital Planimeter
- An instrument used to measure the areas of
maps or planes and flat surfaces in general. It
is called a mechanical integrator and has a
tracing point that performs double
measurement of the perimeter of the relevant
surfaces. The reading is numeric, appearing in
digital format on a small monitor.

5. Prytz’s Planimeter
- The Prytz planimeter is a simple example of a system governed by a nonholonomic
constraint. It is unique among planimeters in that it measures something more subtle
than area, combining the area, centroid and other moments of the region being
 measured, with weights depending on the length of the planimeter. As a tool for
measuring area, it is most accurate for regions that are small relative to its length.

METHODS FOR AREA CALCULATIONS

1. Midpoint Ordinate Rule

The rule states that if the sum of all the ordinates taken at midpoints of each division multiplied
by the length of the base line having the ordinates divided by number of equal parts.
In this, base line AB is divided into equal parts and the ordinates are measured in the midpoints
of each division.

Area = ([O1 +O2 + O3 + …..+ On]*L)/n

L = length of baseline = (n) (d)
n = number of equal parts, the baseline is divided
d = common distance between the ordinates

2. Average Ordinate Rule

The rule states that (to the average of all the ordinates taken at each of the division of equal
length multiplies by baseline length divided by number of ordinates).

Area = [(O1+ O2+ O3+ …. + On)*L]/(n+1)

O1, O2, O3, O4….On
(ordinate taken at each of division.)
L = length of baseline = (n) (d)
n = number of equal parts (the baseline divided)
d = common distance

3. Simpson’s Rule
Simpson’s rule states that, sum of first and last ordinates has to be done. Add twice the
sum of remaining odd ordinates and four times the sum of remaining even ordinates.
Multiply to this total sum by 1/3rd of the common distance between the ordinates which
gives the required area.
 Where O1, O2, O3, …. On are the lengths of the ordinates
d = common distance
n = number of divisions
Note:
This rule is applicable only if ordinates are odd, i.e. even number of divisions.If the number of
ordinates are even, the area of last division maybe calculated separated and added to the result
obtained by applying Simpson’s rule to two remaining ordinates.Even if first or last ordinate
happens to be zero, they are not to be omitted from Simpson’s rule.

4. Trapezoidal Rule
Trapezoidal rule use trapezoids(trapeziums) and we'll find that it gives a better approximation to
the area. The approximate area under the curve is found by adding the area of all the
trapezoids.(Recall that we write "Δx" to mean "a small change in x".)

Now the area of a trapezoid is given by A=(h/2)(b1+b2)

We need "right" trapezoids (which means the parallel
sides are at right angles to the base), and they are rotated 90°
so that their new base is actually h, as follows, and h = Δx.

So the total area is given by:

We can simplify this to give us the Trapezoidal Rule, for n trapezoids:

 IV. DATA
TABLE 1 : Data Gathered

Planimeter Reading Percent Error

Computed Area
Shape Average 𝑇𝑉−𝐸𝑉
(𝑐𝑚2 ) (%E =| 𝑇𝑉 | × 100)
(𝑐𝑚2 )
Regular Square 64.067𝑐𝑚2 64 𝑐𝑚2 0.10%

Circle and Rectangle 33 𝑐𝑚2 32.566 𝑐𝑚2 1.33%

Circle inside Right Triangle 27.367 𝑐𝑚2 27.433 𝑐𝑚2 0.24%

Irregular Shape 50.567 𝑐𝑚2 51.241 𝑐𝑚2 1.32%

VI. OBSERVATION
The experiment requires four different illustrations consisting of shapes. The first illustration
is a regular shape; the second one is two regular shapes at different locations; the third one
is two regular shapes, were one shape is inside the other; and the last one is an irregular
shape. These shapes should have accurate measurements. First, we computed for the
actual area of the shapes. In the first illustration, the area stays as it is. In the second
illustration, we add up the area of the two shapes. In the third illustration, we subtracted the
area of the shape inside the other from the area of the bigger shape. Next, we used the
digital planimeter to compute for the experimental value of the areas of these shapes.

V. Analysis
After obtaining the actual areas computed using specific formulas and the experimental
values of the areas using the digital planimeter, we need to get the percent error between
the two values. We acquired three values from the digital planimeter in every illustration
and solve for the mean to have a more accurate value. There are small differences
between these three trials because of minimal inaccuracy in the tracing of the edges of the
shapes.

VI. Conclusion
Acquiring the most precise results is needed for a more accurate value. This requires
higher accuracy primarily in tracing the edges of the shapes. You should follow the lines
exactly to obtain these values. The digital planimeter used in this experiment is a
mechanical integrator which means it uses the changes in abscissa and ordinate values
and uses it for integration.
VII. References

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planimeter

 http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/planimeters

 https://www.petropedia.com/definition/8343/planimeter

 http://www.math.harvard.edu/~knill/teaching/math21a2000/planimeter/index.html

 https://etc.usf.edu/clipart/77700/77765/77765_planimeter.htm

 https://www.intmath.com/integration/5-trapezoidal-rule.php

 http://www.civilprojectsonline.com/surveying-and-levelling/methods-of-calculation-of-areas-in-

surveying-simpsons-rule/

 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S003448779880013X