LBYCIVB

EXERCISE No. 1
STADIA INTERVAL FACTOR

Student Name:____________________ Date Performed: _____________

Group No.: ___________ Date Submitted: _____________
Group Leader: _______________________ Grade: ___________

1. Objective: The objective of this exercise is to determine the stadia interval factor of
an engineer’s transit or theodolite.

2. Background:

The telescope of an engineer’s transit, theodolite, plane table alidade, and many levels
are furnished with stadia hairs in addition to the regular cross hairs. One stadia hair, the
upper cross hair, is above and the other, the lower cross hair, an equal distance below
the middle cross hair.

The process of taking stadia measurements consists of observing, through the

telescope, the apparent locations of the two stadia hairs on the rod, which is held in a
vertical position. The interval thus determined, called the stadia
intercept/interval/reading, is a direct function of the distance from the instrument to the
face of the stadia rod.

graduated rod

telescope
B

i S

c f C
C d

D for horizontal sights.

Figure 2.3 The stadia method

The principle of the stadia method is based in Figure 2.3 shown, wherein the line of
sight of the telescope is horizontal and the rod is vertical. For the notation
 i = spacing between stadia hairs,
c = distance from the instrument center to the objective lens center,
f = focal length (objective lens to focal point),
d = distance from the focal point F=to the face of the rod,
C = (f + c) = stadia constant,
 for internal focusing telescope, C = 0.0 and
 for external focusing telescope, C = 0.3 m
D = (C + d) = distance from the instrument center to the face of the rod, and
S = stadia intercept or interval

Considering Fig. 2.3, by similar triangles,

f/i = d/S

The horizontal distance d, from focal point to the rod is

d = ( f / i )*S but K = f / i

therefore,
d = K S, Eq. (2.1)

where: K is the stadia interval factor

The horizontal distance D, from instrument center to rod is

D = K S + (c + f)
D=KS+C Eq. (2.2)

3. Instruments and Accessories

1 Engineer’s transit or theodolite

1 100-m tape
1 stadia rod
1 Set of marking pins
2 range poles

4. Location

DLSU football field or any level open surface

5. Procedure
 a. Select a fairly level ground surface where a horizontal sight distance of up to 100
meters can be obtained.
b. Drive a hub into the ground at one end of this distance and designate this as
point O. A marking pin can also be provided on point O.
c. Set up and level the engineer’s transit over point O.
d. Establish a line of 100-meter distance starting from point O and place a marking
pin on every 10-meter mark and designate this locations as points A, B, C, D,
and E. Mark each point with a pin.
e. With the stadia rod held vertical at each designated 10-meter marks, and with the
telescope horizontal, obtain and record the upper and lower stadia hair readings.
f. Compute the stadia interval factor, K, using the equation

K = (D – C) / S

10m 10m 10m 10m 10m

6. Data

Stadia Constant ___________

 Station Stadia Hair Readings Stadia Intercept Stadia Interval
(m) (m) Factor, K
Occupied Observed Upper Lower
O A
B
C
D
E
Average K =

7. Computation

8. Comments
9. Conclusion

10. Recommendations