How do you measure an acre?

[RandB]

I googled this, but can't find a good answer. I need to know how to measure an acre with a line - how many feet across, how many feet long. Not the square footage - but how to measure by the borders. Does anybody here know?
Thanks-

[snoozy]

Originally Posted by RandB

I googled this, but can't find a good answer. I need to know how to measure an acre with a line - how many feet across, how many feet long. Not the square footage - but how to measure by the borders. Does anybody here know?
Thanks-

If you know the borders, multiply the length by the width to get your sq footage, right? Then divide that by 43,560, the sq footage (area) of an acre. That will tell you how many acres you've got.

[Avalon Acres]

43,560 square feet per acre. A perfect square would be 208.71 X 208.71. Or a rectangle roughly 100 X 435.6. Other shapes require different mathmatical calculations.

[mnn2501]

an acre can be any shape, but it will be 43,560 sq ft.
If you need more help tell us your dimensions and we'll help with the math

[Windy in Kansas]

Unless you use rods or chains there really isn't any way to figure acreage without using square footage.

43,560 divided by the length of one line will yield the needed width of another to give one acre.

Example, it can be 2640 (½ mile or quarter section long) X 16.5 feet which is one rod OR 1320 (¼ mile) X 2 rods or 33 feet wide to yield the same.

Sorry, but square footage is the simplest measurement to use.

[uncle Will in In.]

Don't tell us your acre has five sides and one of those is curved. That will sharpen up the homesteader math experts. <>UNK

[uncle Will in In.]

RandB <> I get the feeling that you want to measure out a portion of a larger piece of land. You want this portion to be exactly one acre. Am I on the right track here, or way out in left field? Question for you - Do you want this acre to be square, or rectangle? An acre can be any shape you want it to be, as long as the square footage within that shape totals 43560 square feet.
If we know about what you want this acre to look like, we can help you. <>UNK

[Windy in Kansas]

Originally Posted by RandB

Not the square footage - but how to measure by the borders.

You'll drive us nuts trying to come up with a proper answer for you. You didn't by chance be square root instead of square footage did you?

Good old grade school math is used to to find 43,560. That is all that is needed.

[RandB]

Thanks guys, now my head is spinning!

I will keep you posted, but now I have an idea at least. One thing I want to do is measure out an area of about an acre for some blueberry plants. We already have one area for them, I want to figure out how much more land it would take to give them an acre. I also want to double check our entire acreage, as our wonderful state is trying to make things harder for people with small acreage who have farmland assessment. They said they may come out and measure peoples' properties. We bought this place already farm assessed, the papers say 5.9 acres. I would like to be sure of this, as if you have less than 5 acres, they can take the tax break away. I'm trying to find the survey that was done when we bought it, to see if it was measured out and written down.

[ksfarmer]

If you can access a measuring wheel, you can measure two sides of your property and figure from there. Assuming a square or rectangle shape. An irregular shaped property is a little more complicated but can be done. If you don't have a measuring wheel, you could use a tape measure, just takes more work and a helper.
As for your blueberries, you should be able to easily measure what you have, then figure the additional square footage needed to make 43,560, or one acre.

[uncle Will in In.]

Are the corners marked on the property you bought? If they are just measure one side and one end. Now multiply those two numbers and you will have the total square feet in your property. Divide that total by 43560, and you will have the exact acerage you own. It's not very complicated. <> UNK

[RonM]

Put your Blueberry bushes in 20 rows 10 ft apart in both directions and you can mow betyween them and work between them without a problem. You were already given the measurements 208.7 x 208.7

[VOR.]

Originally Posted by Windy in Kansas

Unless you use rods or chains there really isn't any way to figure acreage without using square footage.

43,560 divided by the length of one line will yield the needed width of another to give one acre.

Example, it can be 2640 (½ mile or quarter section long) X 16.5 feet which is one rod OR 1320 (¼ mile) X 2 rods or 33 feet wide to yield the same.

Sorry, but square footage is the simplest measurement to use.

If he can't compute the area, he will be lost using chains. When I was a kid, my grandfather and I spent most of a day trying to measure out a 5 acre parcel with a chain. Looking back, I'm not sure why we had so much difficulty but it sure wasn't as easy as it sounded at the USDA office.

[edcopp]

If it's round, or partly round pie will need to be involved. Not the kind of pie that you eat. Now if it only has 3 sides you will need to know how to do division, a little bit anyway. You could do the problem with a ruler and a protractor, but it would take a little while. Just be sure that the answer comes out to 43,560 square feet per acre.

[jhuebner]

Here is a good calculator page, with some good references...

http://www.sizes.com/units/acre.htm

Here is another good page of "clues" http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...3134823AA6Xhro

have fun!

[salmonslayer]

I may be way out on this but I navigate a lot with a GPS and it would seem to me it would be pretty easy to plot your points and calculate your acreage. Am I way off on this?

[Micheal]

Just to throw some "stuff" into the mix an acre is measured in 2 dimensions length and width. In other words the "ups and downs" don't count as you pace off or measure the area.
That is another reason the average bloke can only guess at the acreage and uses square footage.

[edcopp]

Originally Posted by salmonslayer

I may be way out on this but I navigate a lot with a GPS and it would seem to me it would be pretty easy to plot your points and calculate your acreage. Am I way off on this?

Nope, you are not way off

[Lazy J]

Originally Posted by RandB

I googled this, but can't find a good answer. I need to know how to measure an acre with a line - how many feet across, how many feet long. Not the square footage - but how to measure by the borders. Does anybody here know?
Thanks-

This is SIMPLE elementary geometry!!

Lenght x Width / 43,560 = acres

[pgerhard]

In New Jesrsey you need to have 5 acers in "production" for farm land assesment. The taz assesor will have two listings in the tax records for your lot. One will have the farm assest are and the other will have the remaining portion.

Years ago you could have a couple of chickens and sell a few dozen eggs and get the marjority of you lot farm land assessed. As munciple budgets have been getting tight they have really started to crack down on the rules that have always been in place.

Another thing you need to worry about is the rollback tax. If you take the land out of farm land assesment you need to pay two years worth of taxes the the property would have been assessed if it wasn't farm land.