How Big Is An Acre?

Answer for "How big is an acre?"

Shirley Warren, Real Estate Agent

Signature Properties

An acre is a measuring unit used only for land measurements in the imperial system. The most common form in which an acre is measured, however, in a rectangle of 660 feet by 66 feet or, 1 furlong by 1 chain. Real estate agencies also invented the commercial acre, but before we get to explain how big is an acre, let’s see what is an acre.

History of the acre

The way these tracks of land are measured today is a long way away from the method used in the Middle Ages. Back then, in order to measure land surfaces, they would use an ox. However much an ox managed to plow in one day was what was considered an acre in those days. Because it was difficult to turn the ox while it was pulling a plow, acres were considered long and thin strips of land. Fortunately, we no longer have to rely on oxen in order to know how big is an acre.

The furlong and chain method involved the use of a surveyor’s chain, a measuring unit of 66 feet that was used in order to measure as accurately as possible plots of land in England. That was what they used and an ox. This measuring system went to the British colonies including America. The chain measuring method was obligatory when the US townships were measured as well as train routes. Today the chain system of measurement is used to measure how fast wildfire spreads (chains per hour). The chain length only measured the width of an acre. For the length, oxen were used and precisely how much an ox could plow in one day.

How big is an acre compared to:

First, you need to understand that an Acre can be measured in any type of shape - a rectangle, a triangle, even circles - as long as its total area equals 43,560 square feet.

A football field - 75% or 90.75% without the end zone
A soccer pitch - 60%
Tennis court - 16 tennis courts put together
1/3 of a Baseball field
3 lanes of an Olympic swimming pool
1 furlong by 1 chain
43,560 square feet
4,046.86 square meters
0.00404686 square kilometers
1/640th of a square mile
0.404686 hectares
4840 square yards
around 708 copies of this article printed on an A4 paper.

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