Acre to Square Meter Conversion – acre to Sq m

What is an Acre? 

The acre is widely known as the measurement unit for land area and is used within the U.S. customary system of measurement and the Imperial system alike. The regular definition of an acre is the specific area of a single chain by a single furlong. This, in turn, works out to 66 by 660 feet on average or 10 square chains in all. It is also equivalent to 1/640 of a single square mile or roughly 43,560 square feet. It is also 4,047 square meters on average. 

An acre is also popularly called 40% of a hectare. Based on the International Yard and Pound agreement of the year 1959, the acre may be described as equivalent to exactly 4,046.8564224 square meters. The term acres previously was abbreviated as ac but over the years it is used in its full form.

History of Acre

Throughout the Middle Ages, there was an interesting definition of the acre that was conceived. It was taken as the area of land which could be seamlessly ploughed in a single day by a yoke (pair) of oxen. The acre continues to be a statute measure across the United States. The US exclusive survey acre and international acre are being used. The only difference is the extent of just 2 parts for every million. The common purpose and use of the acre is the measurement of land area, land plots and tracts. 

The word acre itself originates from the æcer word in Old English parlance. It corresponds to the meaning of an open field. The term Acre is synonymous with ækre from the Norwegian west coast along with Akur which comes from Iceland. Other derivations of the word come from åker which is Swedish while other forms of the word include Akker in the Netherlands or Holland, Ager in Latin, αγρός or Agros in Greek, and Ajra in Sanskrit. The historically relevant spelling of Acre was aker in English over the years. 

Back in 1300, based upon the Act of the Composition of Yards and Perches, the acre stands for roughly 40 perches or rods by length and 4 perches by breadth. It stood for 220 yards by 22 yards as the average rule of thumb. 

Before the metric system came into force, several global countries including European nations made use of their official systems for the acre. In France, for instance, an acre was only used across Normandy although the specific value kept varying hugely throughout the entire region. It usually hovered between 3,632 and 9,725 square meters. The frequently used value stood at 8,172 square meters on average. The acre in Normandy was commonly sub-divided into four roods or vergées and also 160 square perches, just in the manner of the acre used in England. The acre used in Normandy equated to approximately 1.6 arpents.

In Canada, for instance, the arpent from Paris was used in the Quebec province even before the adoption of the regular metric system. It is also known as a French acre in historical parlance. The Normandy acre is quite different for measuring area if you take the arpent from Paris into context. The Normandy acre has never been used in France-influenced regions of Canada earlier. The arpent was the area measurement unit for French Canada at the same time. Morgen is the word used for an acre in Germany. There are multiple versions of this measurement unit, differing from one German region to another. 

The acre is majorly used in present and previous countries under the British Commonwealth as a custom. In some countries, it is still used as a statute measure of sorts. Although, post-2010, the UK has discontinued the use of acres. Several countries such as New Zealand, South Africa and Australia and other major countries terminated the use of acres for decades. In several regions where acre is not a statute measure, it can still be legally employed for trading purposes if all supplementary details are provided and it is not used for registration of land as well. 

Here are some interesting facts about the acre: 

• It equals around 4,840 square yards and 43,560 square feet. 
• An acre is also the same as 4,047 square meters or 0.4047 hectares. 
• All contemporary versions of the acre will have 4,840 square yards although there are varying yard definitions. Hence, the exact acre size will be dependent upon the specific yard used.
• The acre does not have any specified or prescribed shape which you should take into account. 
• A global or international acre is equivalent to 0.40468564224 hectares for a square with sides of 100 m and an overall area of 1 hectare. It is also equivalent to 4,046.8564224 square meters. 
• A U.S. survey acre works out to 0.404687261 hectares or 4,046.87261 square meters. 

People in the U.S. may visualise the acre in the form of a rectangle which measures 55 yards by 88 yards. This is roughly 9/10th of the size of a regular American football field. 1 acre is 90.75% of the American football field, i.e. 100 yards long and 53.33 yards wide. This excludes the end zone of course. The complete field, inclusive of these end zones, will be roughly 0.53 hectares (ha) or 1.32 acres. 

People of other nations may envision an acre as something that is more than 50% of a football pitch of 0.71 hectares or 1.76 acres. Another way to remember an acre is as 1% short of around 44,000 square feet. This is because an acre works out to 43,560 square feet. 

Current Use of Acre 

Acre is presently used in several countries including the United Kingdom (UK), the United States (U.S.) and along with India, Ghana, Canada and many other nations. The US makes use of both international and its own US survey acres. They vary based on which yard type is being used for measurement purposes. 

Several former and current British Commonwealth nations also use acres as a custom. Some countries use acres as a statute measure. These nations include the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Falkland Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Jamaica, St. Helena, Saint Lucia and more. It is also used for measuring residential land in Sri Lanka and other South Asian nations along with the United Kingdom, as mentioned earlier. 

What is Square Meter?

The area that is equivalent to a square with 1 meter on every side is a square meter. This is used in reality for measuring areas of homes, rooms, land parcels, blocks and so on. The symbol in this case is known as m2. Less officially, the square meter is sometimes abbreviated as sq m.

A square meter is the SI-based measuring unit for an area that denotes 1 meter of length on both sides of the area and can be of any shape. 

Hence, rather than meter, it makes more sense to convert an acre into a square meter to get an accurate measurement of the land, floor, or plot of a home. 

History of the Square Meter

The original definition of meter came about in the year 1793 and it was called the one ten-millionth figure for the distance between the North Pole from the Equator right along a big circle. The circumference of the Earth is roughly 40,000 kilometres. In the year 1799, the meter was defined once more with an actual prototype meter bar coming into play. The actual bar was eventually changed in the year 1889. 

In the year 1960, the meter was freshly defined based on a specific number of wavelengths for a particular emission line in the case of Krypton-86. The present definition came into being in the year 1983 while it was slightly reworked in the year 2002 for clarification purposes, i.e. that the meter stands for an actual measure of length. 

The term Meter is derived from the Greek word ‘Metron’ which means ‘a measure’. A researcher in 1675, named Tito Livio Burattini, defined a meter using the length of a pendulum. He wanted to standardize the value by that means. However, owing to the accuracy of measurement, it was proven that the second hand of a pendulum differed from country to country. Thus, the idea of the researcher was entirely terminated. 

The Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures (CGPM) in 1983 introduced a new definition which is currently being used worldwide. 

According to the definition,  1 Meter = the length of light in a vacuum travelled during a time interval of (1/299,792,458) a second.

Current Use of Square Meter

Meter is used for measurement purposes related to everything between the ruler’s length and the distance between several things contained in a room. Most household items including rooms, tables, window frames and television screens will be measured by way of meters. Kilometres are also used for measuring long distances accordingly.

Relationship between Acre and Square Meter

Instead of meter square (m2), it is easier to use square meters for conversion purposes. To understand the relationship of 1 acre to sq mtr before proceeding to calculate, you must know the value of acre and square meter.  

Hence, to convert 1 acre to square meter, you will have to remember that 1 square meter is equal to 0.000247105 acres and 1 acre equals 4046.89 square meters. 

How to Convert Acre to Square Meter? 

To convert 1 acre to square meter is a simple process once you know the value of the measuring unit.  Hence, 1 acre is equal to 4046.86 square meters. Thus, to know the final land measurements in meters, one has to multiply the number of acres by 4046.86. You can also convert square meters to acres by multiplying the figure in square meters by 0.000247105. 

1 square meter = 0.000247105 acres. 

For the conversion of 1 acre to square meter, you should remember the above formulas to make land measurement calculations easier and faster. However, one must note that this conversion applies solely to square plots. In the case of square plots, 1 acre equals 4046.86 square meters or 63.614953 meters.

Formula for Converting Acre to Square Meter

The formula of an acre to sq mtr is as follows:- 

Square Meters = Acre * 4046.89 

This formula will easily convert acre to square meter which will help you in your measurement objectives. The formula can also be written as m2 = ac/0.00024711. This will also give you the same results. 

Acre to Square Meter Conversion Table

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Difference between Acre and Square Meter

While one is an SI unit (sqm), the other is not an SI unit (acre) but both are used to measure the area of the land, and floor, to name a few. Refer to the table given below to understand the basic differences between the two measuring units:

FAQ’s about Acre to Square Meter