Hopkinsville Kentuckian., 1900-10-23

.'.I w AN|IN- ~ 80 WY ~ -
bfSa1k, / l&yuKa kst The contents Of
Iueh q asld in asnass feet"
He locked al me with an inquiring
look. ! bowed assent, and at his re
quest multiplied 5000 by 2,40O, and
obtained the number Of 100000
square feet.
He then asked me to divide this
number by the number of square feet
there are in an ecre, in orderto obtain
the number OF acres that the board
represented. Fortunately, remem-
bered that there are 43,56O square
feet in all acre; 30 / performed the
sum for him and obtained 1913 as
the result, OF very nearly 200 acres.
The farmer then attached the board
on his spring balance and found that
it weighed eight pounds.
He then laid of in inches, on the
same scale of 100 feet to one inch,
the longest side Of the field along the
longest aide Of the board, and taking
q string-the length Of which was
equal, on the same scale, TO one side
Of the feld, added to the length of the
diagonal Of tho lot---he held its ends
on the longer dde OF the board. One
Of the ends was at a corner, and the
ether at the end Of the distance which
represented the long side Of the field.
He marked with his pencil the
point on the board, which he reached
by stretching the loop of the string
so that the portion Of the string on
one side Of the pencil should repre-
sent the length Of enc side of the
field, and the portion on the other
side the length of the distance be-
tween the opposite corners.
In the same way he marked out on
the board the remaining corner of
the field, and he drew straight lines
on the board between these corners,
"There," said he, "I have a map
of my field. 1t isn't square or any
thing regular. 1t is kind of wopper-
jawed figure, and s'pose you think
my way Of getting at the number of
acres is sort of wopper-jawed. But
1 never had your education, and it is
the best l can do"
Then he directed his man so to
saw off portions of the board as to
leave only the figure of the field.
When this had been done he weighed
what remained, and the result wai
four pounds.
'The whole board" said he,
weighed eight pounds and repre-
sented 200 acres. Therefore my field
contains 100 acres, for the board now
weighs just one-hslf of what it did
before. You will be able, with your
instruments, to get better result;
but l guess Pm pretty near right"
We gathered up the farmers sur
veying instruments-the spring bal
ance, the saw and the board--and
descended the mountain.
With my table of logarithms
worked out result that evening
which was mere accurate than the
one obtained by him; but the diff
ference between my result and his
was not very great, and felt that
l had failed to impress the farmer
as a man who could do something
the aid of book, a man for
action.
One might wonder why the farmer
did not get the contents of the field
by measuring the perpendicular or
shorter distance from any angle of
one of the triangles into which the
field was divided to the side opposite
This angle. The contents Of the tri-
angle would then be the length Of
'his opposite side multiplied by one
half the length of this perpendicular,
and the contents of the whole field |
would be the. sum of that of the tri-
angles. Unfortunately, however, the |
farmer had net the advantage of a
very simple knowledge of geometry; |
and the young surveyor was too desir-
Gus Of using a formula which gave
The contents Of the field when the
three sides of each of the t-iangles
we're known. What are afterward |
ieen to be the simplest methods are
often overlooked at frst.-Youth's
Companion.