Court Cases
Coordinate Systems, Projections, Datums, etc
Texas Surveying Principles
Survey Calculations
Texas Survey Misc.
100

This land mark court case helped pave the way for what we know as the "dignity of calls".

What is Stafford v. King, 30 Tex. 257 (1867)?

100

The different between the ellipsoid height and the orthometric height.

What is the geoid separation?


100

The two types of law that govern Texas land law.

What is Spanish Civil Law and English Common Law?

100

A Texas league of land is this many varas square.

What is 5000 varas square?

100

______________ is statutorily empowered to regulate the practice of engineering and land surveying in Texas.

What is the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors?

200

The projection within the NAD83 Texas state plane zones.

What is the Lambert Conformal Conic projection?

200

The year Texas adopted English Common Law

What is 1840?

200

A Texas labor of land is this many varas square.

What is 1000 varas square?

200

The number of original land districts in Texas.

What is 35?

300
a three-dimensional figure whose plane sections are generally circles.


What is an ellipsoid?

300

Generally referenced as the first call from the established dignity of calls for Texas.

What is a natural monument?


300

The amount of parts per million a US Survey Foot is longer than an International Foot.

What is 2 parts per million?

300

___________ uses a fixed base station to send corrections to a moving receiver. The receiver compares a code from the satellite to a code it generates internally, and then calculates any measurement errors.

What is real-time kinematics (RTK)?

400

A coordinate grid system that divides the Earth into 60 zones, each 6 degrees wide in longitude.

What is the Universal Transverse Mercator?
400

a legal doctrine that states that the meaning of a written document is determined by its textual content alone. The rule applies to documents such as contracts, wills, and deeds.

What is the 4 corners rule?

400

A surveying technique that adjusts a traverse's closure error by distributing the coordinate error in proportion to the length of the traverse lines

What is the compass rule adjustment?

OR

What is the Bowditch Rule?

400

_______________ is a multiplication factor used to convert between grid and ground distances. It's calculated by multiplying the grid scale factor by the elevation factor.

What is the combined scale factor?

500

In this Texas court case, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that when a land patent description conflicts with the actual survey markers on the ground, the physical boundaries marked by the surveyor will take precedence over the written description in the patent, essentially prioritizing the "calls" of course and distance over the landmarks mentioned in the patent document; this decision established a key principle in Texas land law regarding interpreting conflicting land descriptions.

What is Urquhart v. Burleson, 6 Tex. 502 (1851)?

500

defines an Earth-centered, Earth-fixed coordinate system and a geodetic datum, and also describes the associated Earth Gravitational Model and World Magnetic Model.

What is WGS84?

or

What is World Geodetic System of 1984?

500

This is the highest order of the dignity of calls, generally not referenced in the typical list of 5 calls. Courts would hold this over natural monumentation in certain instances.

What is the intent of the parties?

or

What is the intent?

500

This is the state of Texas' virgin land, which was a primary source of revenue in the early days of the state.

What is the unappropriated public domain?