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Size of acre
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Posted by Xena_Z4 Wis (My Page) on Wed, Aug 25, 04 at 23:18
| I have a newby question. I haven't bought land yet, and I've been thinking about what how many acres I want. I just realized I don't really know how big an acre really is. Roughly how big is it in relation to a city block? I've only lived in cities, so that is all I've got to compare it to.
Thanks,
Sonja |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Size of acre
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An acre is 43560 square feet.
This is a square parcel of land 208.71 feet on each side. A standard city block measurement was established at
6 city blocks = 1 kilometer.
So 1 city block = 546.80665 feet. So an area approximately equal to 4 square acres = one square city block.
This would be one half city block wide and one half city block long to approximately equal 209 feet wide and 209 feet long.
This is approximate. Pooh Bear http://www.mce.k12tn.net/measurement/measurement_chart.htm http://www.wforum.com/online/length.htm |
RE: Size of acre
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| Xena, My recomendation is to find an area near you where the parcels are about 1 acre. Check them out, the house size in relation to whats left over. I moved from the city to 3 acres and couldn't keep up with it. Our home and yard, for the kids, take up about a half of an acre. What do you intend to do with the rest? We have a small family orchard, a huge garden and are currently working on the out buildings and chicken coop. I live on a hill and some is too steep to use. So I guess my advice is to get out and feel the surroundings. Do you want to be able to walk the property? Or use a mode of transportation, ATV, Lawn mower, horse? Best of luck. Gina |
RE: Size of acre
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I have trouble with visualization and this is what I came up with.
An acre is about the size of a football field without the endzones (the part behind the goal posts. Approximate but you can find one easily and stand there and think about it. |
RE: Size of acre
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| I generally visuallize an acre as roughly larger than half a football field. For baseball fans, that's like 1/3rd a baseball diamond. A soccer field is 1.98 acres - so half a soccer field is about an acre. |
RE: Size of acre
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A surveyors rod is 16.5 feet.
A surveyors chain is four rods, or 66 feet.
An acre is ten square chains. Now go measure out 66 feet, or measure your house and look at how much 66 feet is in comparison, and think of ten times that area square. Dan |
RE: Size of acre
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| To get an idea of the size you really want I would try to find some people with different acreages and find out how they use them and what size works. Depending on what you do and the climate it will make a difference for upkeep. |
RE: Size of acre
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| As someone else suggested, you need to make a list of things that you want to do with it. I live on an acre, have numerous vegetable and flower gardens, a rabbit hutch, DH has a shop and equipment shed with attatched garden room for me, and a 2500 square foot house. We still have room to spare. However, when I had horses and small livestock I lived on 23 acres. I used roughly 5 of those acres. Less than 5 acres would not have been enough. |
RE: Size of acre
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| There are 640 square acres in a square mile . Figure out how many steps you take to go 209 feet and figure from there . Do not take the sellers word for how many acres he is selling most "EXAGERATE" OR DELBERATELY LIE, check it out at the city or town hall . Good luck! |
RE: Size of acre
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and to throw a monkey wrench in:
a flat acre,
an acre of gentle rolling hill,
an acres in a river ravine or
an acre on the side of a mountain
... an acre is an acre but not all acres are created equal.
Definately look at your goals and dreams and the reality of the piece: Soil, water, weather, vegetation, neighboring impacts ... A person may think that they only need X acres but can the land truely substain those expectations? |
RE: Size of acre
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| May I elaborate on what Foglily is saying? Those meaasurements are horizontal and apply to flat surfaces. On a slope an acre is considerably more than 208.71 ft. The steeper the slope the more ft. up to 45 degrees. |
RE: Size of acre
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Greetings! I was doing a search on Yahoo about area measurements and came across your posting here on GardenWeb
about the size of an acre. After reading some of the other postings thought I share my 2 cents worth. A football field is a little larger than an acre. Football field is 160 X 300 feet from side line to side line and goal line to goal line and that area is 48,000 sq. feet. An acre measures 43,560 sq. feet. That works out to be 1.10 acres equals a football field. Even if you include the endzones of a football field it is still just 1.32 acres. So hopefully that gives a little visual aid as to the size of an acre. So if you are looking at a building lot with 160 feet road frontage and 300 feet deep, that's the size of a football field or 1.1 acre. |
RE: Size of acre
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| I came across your question whilst I was also trying to visualize an acre of land. I found that www.findlotsize.com was a useful visual aid to plot sizes measured in acres, hectares or square metres. The website allows you to shade any piece of land in the world (it uses google maps) and calculate its area. I found that calculating the size of a familiar reference plot like a public park or private garden helped. |
Here is a link that might be useful: FindLotSize
RE: Size of acre
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Hey!
You see that reply from TedP2?
What you buy whenever you see "contains X.x acres" is/are surveyors acre(s). That acre is 43560 square feet on a theoretical flat plane surface. Any slope or hillside or depression is just "bonus" square feet.
As for just how much space an acre actually covers, try this....It's something I have always been amazed at.....
I spent most of the past many years doing things that brought me into quite a few soon to be emptied for rebuild/renovation industrial spaces. An acre is a lot of space. Ever been in an empty single story 1,000,000 sq ft of open space building?
OK, if you are friendly with or know of a Realtor who specializes in commercial properties, ask them if they would be so kind as to take you to a preferably empty warehouse or two. You might just be amazed at just how large a space an acre really is. And something that for some unknown reason Mr. Tucker, my 5th grade teacher, made us memorize, and something I have never forgotten:
165' X 165' is exactly 5/8 sq acres
330' X 330' is " 2.5 sq acres
660' X 660' is " 10 sq acres
1280 X 1280 is " 40 sq acres
2560 X 2560 is " 160 sq acres
5280 X 5280 is " 640 sq acres
640 sq acres is 1 square mile
640 acres is also what is known as a "section" Though not a site about numbers or surveying or anything similar....An excellent site that explains such rural/landowner survey and the like questions things quite well at the link below |
Here is a link that might be useful: rural/land measurements
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