How Many Feet are in an Acre?

An acre is defined as a unit of the land measurement that gives an area commonly used in the US customary and the imperial systems. An acre of land is further described as the area of one furlong by one chain measuring 660 feet by 66 feet that are precisely equivalent to 1/640 of a square mile, approximately 40% of an hectare, 43,560 square feet (or 4,047 square meters). The global symbol used to denote an acre is ac, and the international acre is the commonly used measurement. In the US both the international acre in addition to the US survey acre is widely used.

Description

One acre is equivalent to 43,560 square feet, 4,047 square meters, 4,840 square yards, or 0.0015625 square miles. Although the present variant of the acre has 4,840 square yards, there are various descriptions of an acre, and therefore, the precise size of a particular acre relies on which yard it is based. Initially, an acre was accepted as a selion of land measuring 660 ft long and 66 ft wide. A square enclosing of 1 acre is estimated at 208 ft 9 inches or 69.57 yards on each side. There is no definite shape of an acre, and therefore, any measurement of area giving 43,560 sq ft qualifies to be an acre.

Differences Between US Survey and International Acres

In 1959, the US and other five Commonwealth nations agreed to the International yard and pound agreement which stipulates that one international yard is equivalent to 3 feet (0.9144 meters). The international acre is subsequently equal to 43560 square feet (4,046.856 422 4 square meters). The US Survey and the international acre are made up of 4,840 yards; however, there exist different meanings of a yard. The US survey acre is roughly equal to 43,560.174240522719629 square feet (4,046.872 609 874 252 square meters), and its precise value as defined by Mendenhall Order is based on an inch, and is given by exactly 1 meter = 39.37 inches. Surveyors practicing in the US make use of both the survey and international acre measurements. The difference between the two alternatives of acres is roughly 24.8 square inches, which is equivalent to an A4 size paper, and it is mostly not significant. Areas are rarely measured with extreme accuracy for the two measurements to be detectable.

History

The acre was previously the amount of land that could be tilled by a yoke of oxen in a single day. Numerous nations in Europe made use of their official acre before the implementation of the metric system. Statutory acre values were introduced in England and after that the UK by several acts. Historically, the size of tracks of farms in the UK was typically expressed in acres even though the number of acres was so big that it would have been convenient to convey them in square miles. 640 acres constitute one square mile.

Equivalent to Other Units of Area

An acre can be converted to other numerous units of area. One international acre is equivalent to 43,560 square feet (4,046.8564224 square meters) and 0.40468564224 hectares. One US survey acre, on the other hand, is equivalent to 43560.1742418763 square feet (4,046.87261 square meters) and 0.404687261 hectares. One acre is also equivalent to 4,840 square yards; four roods; 10 square chains; 160 rods square; 160 perches.

Countries Using the Acre

The acre is popularly used in the US, Jamaica, Ghana, Sri Lanka, the UK, the US Virgin Islands, Bangladesh, Guam, Samoa, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Nepal, Canada, and Dominica among others.