What exactly does an acre look like?

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What exactly does an acre look like?
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Suzie

Joined: 10 Oct 2006
Posts: 206

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 06 5:55 pm Post subject: What exactly does an acre look like?
I apologise for the stupidity of this question in advance but can anyone give me a visual image comparison for how big an acre is? I've tried googling for this but all I can get are equivalent measurements in metres/yards/square feet etc which is fine but I need to be able to visually relate these to something tangible Suzie

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 06 5:59 pm Post subject:

Do you know how big a football pitch is? An acre is a small, full sized one of them. A hectare is a big, full sized one.

Quote:

Visualising land areas is not easy without experience and practice. But if you need to, it can be a help to think in terms of football pitches.
In English Association Football the rules state that the pitch must be between 50 and 100 yards wide, and between 100 and 130 yards long (with length greater than breadth, so that it is oblong in shape). This big variation (by coincidence) means that the smallest possible pitch is almost exactly 1 acre in size; while the largest is almost exactly 1 hectare in size. Small pitches are those usually crowded onto school playing-fields, while the large pitches are those on which international matches are played.
Of course you can do something similiar with any existing piece of land with which you might be familiar (Baseball diamond, hockey pitch etc.) but will need to find the official sizes and do a few sums.

https://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/dictunit/notes.htm

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 06 6:15 pm Post subject:
****** football pitches; on the news it is always football pitches, or Wales

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 06 6:18 pm Post subject:
If I've worked it out correctly it's about 15.5 full sized double tennis courts, i.e. the bit the ball can land in.

Bernie66

Joined: 14 Jan 2005
Posts: 13967
Location: Eastoft

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 06 6:26 pm Post subject:
Single or doubles?

Beckyess

Joined: 08 Jan 2006
Posts: 1076
Location: Worcestershire

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 06 7:16 pm Post subject:
I think it's 209 feet square! Becky

Jb

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 7761
Location: 91� N

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 06 8:01 pm Post subject:
about the size of 16 traditional allotments, or 32 modern allotments

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 06 9:43 pm Post subject:

I always think of it as a small field, but have no idea how accurate it is. A large field is five acres, and a silly huge mechanised one is 20 plus. That's probably no help at all. It's also very rough and tied up with the size of the surrounding fields here!

What's also probably no help is the official (well, historical!) measure that an acre is the area a man and a team of two oxen can plough in a day.

I'd stick to fooball pitches!

Beckyess

Joined: 08 Jan 2006
Posts: 1076
Location: Worcestershire

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 06 10:36 pm Post subject:
Or the length of 2 blue whales Becky

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 06 10:56 pm Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

That's a paddock, a small field & a large field.

My dad's little paddock is two acres, if that's any good to you. And my grazing pastures are about equal at 5 acres each. The two hay meadows put together are 20 acres.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Sun Dec 17, 06 11:56 am Post subject:
Yup - works in my brain!

SheepShed

Joined: 08 Nov 2006
Posts: 332
Location: In the middle of a Welsh forest

Posted: Mon Dec 18, 06 5:26 pm Post subject:
Wales is about 4,942,115 acres, so just imagine an area roughly one five millionth the size of Wales. Does that help ? Or have a look at https://cockeyed.com/inside/acre/acre_photos.html which has some photos.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45723
Location: Essex

Posted: Mon Dec 18, 06 5:28 pm Post subject:

SheepShed wrote:

just imagine an area roughly one five millionth the size of Wales.

That works for me

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43758
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Dec 19, 06 1:32 am Post subject:
a little smaller than a medium sized carpark

Suzie

Joined: 10 Oct 2006
Posts: 206

Posted: Wed Dec 20, 06 10:11 pm Post subject:

Oh wow! Thank you all for your "visual" comparisons and apologies for not replying earlier.

A football field - yep can definitely relate to that one with 2 sports mad teenage boys (I even had to attend the referee training courses!)
Allotments, small fields disguised as paddocks, small car parks, blue whales, a1/5000000 sized piece of Wales (must be my nan's part) - they get better and better

.

I knew I should have just asked you lot straight away instead of Google. Now I know what I'm looking for when searching for property. It will make sizing up a lot more fun

Thanks again
Suzie

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