How Big is an Acre

"A thousand acres that can feed a thousand souls is better than ten thousand acres of no more effect." - William Petty

We often come across people in our lives who talk about the acres of land they own, somewhere in the countryside, outside the city. After the conversation is over, we find ourselves trying to figure out exactly how much land does the person own. In most of the cases, the problem lies in the basics, where you do not know how big is one acre? Or how big is one acre of land in feet, meters or yards? You will find the answers to your column of queries through this article.

Origin of the Word 'Acre'

The word acre originated from an old English word - aecer, which means an open field. Oddly enough, the word acre, is derived from a word which means an unspecified amount of land! No wonder, you are still struggling to find out exactly the size of an acre!

In early times, farmers in England termed the area which they could plow behind an Ox in a day, as an acre. This made for varied measurements of an acre throughout the country, as each farmer managed to plow a different amount of land in a day. King Edward (I) of England, was the first person to standardize the measurement of an acre. The king said that, an area of land measuring up to 40 rods long and 3 rods wide can be termed as an acre. 1 rod approximately being 5 ½ yards in length. But, in spite of this, there were variations in land sizes all over England.

Exact Size of an Acre

After the area of an acre was standardized, we are now affirmed to determine the area of an acre in various metric measurements. Let us look at some common questions and their answers:

Q. An acre in square feet?
A. 43,560 square feet

Q. An acre in square meters?
A. 4046.86 square meters

Q. An acre in square yards?
A. 4840 square yards

Q. An acre in terms of a hectare?
A. 0.4047 of 1 hectare is an acre

Approximation of an Acre

It can be difficult, even after knowing these numbers, to sometimes imagine the area of an acre. Although the figures given above are exact figures, for your visual imagination and an approximate area of an acre, here are a few references:

• If you imagine an American football field, an acre would approximately be three fourth of that. If you exclude the two 30-feet long end zones in the American Football field, the area you are left with would be slightly bigger than an acre.
• When you visit any of the places like malls, cinema houses or even huge supermarkets, you definitely notice the huge parking areas these places have. An acre would approximately be the area required to park 200 cars.
• In case you love watching or playing soccer, then you could keep in mind that an acre is approximately one-third of a standard soccer field.

Now you can go one-up on the people who boast about the numerous acres of land they own, by just converting them into square feet, square meters, or even approximating to the number of football field. Have fun!