The Gunters Chain was the easiest method for measuring the vast wilderness frontier and converting the survey into acres. The students need to become familiar with the units of measure in this section to complete the exercises. Since most of the surveys were not perfect squares or rectangles, the surveyor would draw the survey and break the land survey into squares, rectangles, and parallelograms to compute the acres. Use the example in the student workbook to demonstrate the multiplication and division required for links, chains and acres. Emphasize that the units for measuring land in colonial times were acres, chains, and links.
Students are to complete Lessons One, Two, and Three in class.
The answers are carried out in decimal, but can be rounded per the teacher's instruction. Explain the formula for computing area of a triangle. Point out again that in Colonial Virginia, a survey was conducted to make sure the landowner would have the correct number of acres. The surveyor could break the survey into triangles to compute the acres. Use the example in the student workbook to demonstrate the multiplication and division required.