This is a question we have had come up from time to time, but we really didn’t dig into it until we bough a piece of property. Then we had too figure out fencing for 15 acres with pastures being shaped differently and putting paddocks in the future for horses.
So we did some research and found that actually visualizing something like football field or walking/pacing a piece of land is easiest to figure out how big an acre is.
So how big is an acre of land?
One acre can be measured in any shape making it a bit confusing and you have to do the math the easiest way is to break it down into square footage. The total area of the land needs to equal 43,560 square feet or we can look it in other measurements like below:
- 4046.86 square meters equals one acre
- 4840 square yards equals one acre
- 0.0015625 mile equals one acre
Another common way to look at one acre is one furlong by one chain or 660 feet by 66 feet which is how we do our food plots and crops most of the time.
So even thought this sounds simple it can be complicating just thinking about the math behind this. That is why it can be easier to walk it out or think about something visually to make
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How Big Is An Acre Visually?
One of the easiest ways to look at an acre is by comparing to something visually you are familiar or grew up with. It could be a football field, a horse arena, soccer field, tennis court, basketball court
Horse Arena
How Many Arenas Are In An Acre?
A competition size arena is commonly around 100 X 200 feet. So with 43,500 square feet equaling one acre we have to calculate the square footage of the arena.
To do that we simply multiply 100 feet by 200 feet which equals 20,000 square feet. We take that total and divide by the 43,500 to get 0.4591368227731864. Round that up to around 46%. So two Horse Arenas would equal just about an acre of land (92%).
2 Horse Arenas is 92% of an Acre of Land
Football Field
How Many Football Fields In An Acre?
This is actually easier then the Horse Arena since high school, college and NFL football fields are all the same size at at 120 yards long total. So the playing field between the goal lines is 100 yards (aka 300 feet) with the end zones being 10 yards.
The width is 53 1/3 yards wide or 160 feet. So to get the square footage you multiply 360 feet by 160 which equals 57,600 square feet. So with 1 acre equaling 43,560 square feet a football field is 1.32 acres.
1 Football Field is 1.32 acres
Tennis Court
How Many Tennis Courts In An Acre?
So a standard tennis court is 78 feet long by 36 feet wide (including the doubles lines). So that would mean you take 78 multiplied by 36 to give you the square footage of 2,800.
Now you would take the 43,560 square feet an acre is equal to and divide that by 2,800 to get 15.5 or 16 tennis courts.
16 Tennis Courts equals 1 acre
Basketball Court
How Many Basketball Courts In An Acre?
A standard basketball court is 94 feet long by 50 feet wide making the square footage 4,700 square feet (94 feet multiplied by 50 feet). We know 43,560 feet equals one acre so we would need to take this and divide it by the square footage of a basketball court.
43,560 feet divided by 4,700 is 9.26 rounded up to 10.
10 Basketball Courts in a single Acre
So that is one a few good ways to visualize how big an acre is based on what you know.
Other Ways To Look At An Acre Of Land
Maybe you are looking out at your back yard wondering how many acres it is or doing something like we do which is figuring out paddocks for the horses and cows where we want them a minimum of 1 to 1.5 acres. There are tools but if I am up there and looking to figure out fence posts, fencing and an area I just want to do it on the spot.
The simplest way is to walk it and time yourself walking. Or you drive your 4wheeler car at certain speed and time it.
So how can you actually do your speed and time yourself? Well if you have a smartphone you have many options.
All you need to do is if walking:
- Download a speedometer app
- Open up your stopwatch or timer in your smart phone
- Open your speedo app
- Walk at a pace of 3 mph (4.4 feet per second)
- At 50 seconds stop you have just walked across the length of a square acre
50 seconds at 3 MPH make your mark. So you can walk the perimeter of a square acre is approximately 200 seconds. Pretty easy right.
You can adjust this to whatever you want it to be as well if you want to walk faster like 4 MPH or take your 4wheeler. Just make sure you are measuring your MPH and a timer/stop watch to make it as accurate as possible.
3MPH = 50 seconds = 1 side of 1 square acre
4MPH = 35.61 second = 1 side of 1 square acre
5MPH = 28.50 seconds = 1 side of 1 square acre
6MPH = 23.75 seconds = 1 side of 1 square acre
7MPH = 20.35 seconds = 1 side of 1 square acre
8MPH = 17.81 seconds = 1 side of 1 square acre
9MPH = 15.83 seconds = 1 side of 1 square acre
10MPH = 14.24 seconds = 1 side of 1 square acre
Your best bet would be to mark where you want the acre to start from then get your pace down (MPH) before you reach that point then start your timer or stop watch as you hit that point in stride. Hope this helps.
Related Questions (Asked By Visitors)
What Is 1 Acre To Feet?
1 acre to feet is 43,650 square feet. One side of a perfectly squared acre is around 209 feet.
What Is 1 Acre To Meters?
1 acre to meters is 4046.8 square meters.
What Is A 1/2 Acre Lot Size In Feet?
1/2 Acre lot size in feet is 2,780 square feet. One side of a square 1/2 acre would be 104.5 feet in length.
How Big Is An Acre In Miles?
An acre in miles is 0.0015625 square miles.
How Big Is An Acre Compared To A Football Field?
An Acre is actually only 76% of a standard football field including the end zones of course. So if you have over an acre of land you can put in a football field and still have room for your house and garage or whatever else you want. Just put in an AstroTurf football field then you won’t have to ever worry about mowing the lawn.
What is the dimension of 1/4 Acre?
1/4 acre is 10,890 square feet.
What Are The Dimensions Of An Acre Of Land?
The dimensions of an acre of land are 43,450 square feet. Where if it is a perfect square each side would be 208.71 feet.
How Many Football Fields Is 5 Acres?
On a 5 acre lot you could fit 4.53 football fields which is great as you will still have close to a half acre for parking, concessions or some other type of field area.
How Many Feet Are On One Side Of An Acre?
There are approximately 209 feet to a square acre (208.71) to be exact. If it was a rectangle you would simply need to know the one side of that and you can figure out the rest by figuring out the variable of the one side X other side = 43,560 square feet.
