Square Rods and Acres Converter
Using the Square Rods and Acres Converter
This converter allows you to find equivalent values between two imperial units of area, the square rods and acres (ac).
Start by choosing the spelling you would like to see in the converter between the British and the American spelling.
| # | Step |
|---|---|
| 1 | Follow up by choosing your input unit, which will be the unit of the value you are trying to convert. The choice is between square rods and acres. This choice is made in the ‘CONVERT FROM’ section. |
| 2 | The output unit, which is the one you want your result in, can be chosen in the ‘CONVERT TO’ section. Choose between the same two options as you did when choosing the input units. |
| 3 | You can also just accept the default settings of your unit, or easily swap them by clicking on the icon with two arrows headed in opposite directions. |
| 4 | Once you are happy with your input and output unit selection, write the actual value of your input into the ‘VALUE TO CONVERT’ part of the converter. If you input a decimal value, make sure you use the decimal dot and not the comma, as is the case in some countries. |
| 5 | Proceed to choose the number of decimal places you want your result rounded toward, and click on ‘CONVERT’. |
Your result will appear below the converter as a decimal number rounded to the desired number of decimal places. Alongside the result, you will also receive the conversion rate between the units, as well as a convenient ‘COPY’ icon, which allows for easy copying and pasting of the result.
What is a Square Rod?
A square rod is a unit of area that is defined as the area of a square with a side length of 1 rod.
This still leaves us with the question of what exactly is the unit of rod equal to.
Albeit it is a proper part of the imperial system, there is a chance you did not hear about this unit, as it has been pushed into a bit of obscurity with time.
The history of the rod is a fairly inconsistent one, meaning that the value and the definition of the unit have been adjusted many times throughout history.
First of all, the name itself is a bit of an enigma, as the reference has been changed throughout history in favor of other words as well. Alternative names include perch, pole, or lug.
To makes matters worse, there were times in history when all words were used, referencing different units of measurement, while other times in history indicate that these were interchangeable references to the same unit. Given that the history of the unit goes all the way to ancient Rome, and its usage spanned across many nations and languages, it is clear that there were ample opportunities to further this confusion.
The actual value of the unit has also been modified throughout time, from anywhere between 10 to 24 feet.
It is also famously known, that the confusion was used as a means for a lot of devious activities, the most notable being some land seizures done by Henry VIII, where he used varied definitions of the unit to shrink the lands of the Church by simply changing the official definition and then proceeding to claim the “extra” land for his kingdom.
The complete history of the rod is a wild and messy one, but definitely worth pursuing. You can read more using the link in our references.
Today, a rod is defined as 16.5 feet, which means that a square rod has an area of 16.52 ft2, which is 272.25 ft2.
Since the rod, and therefore also the square and cube rod, is an officially established unit of measurement of the imperial system, based on the 1959 international agreement, it can still find its use despite not being very popular with the general public.
To this day, you will hear about rods as units of measurement in the fields of canoeing (especially because the original canoe is 1 rod long) and pipeline management (where prices are often indicated in USD per rod).
Converting Square Rods and Acres Manually
The conversion rate you receive alongside your results is the key concept that can help us convert the two units manually.
The best way to determine the conversion rates is to know, that 1 acre is defined as 160 square rods.
This leads to 2 formulae that can be used for conversion. Despite not having a proper label, we will informally mark square rods as R2 in the formulae.
r^2 = ac*160
ac = r^2\div160
The best way to use the formulae is to apply the one where the output value is also the subject of the formula, which means that if the output is in square rods, we use the first formula, while if the output is in acres, we use the second formula. Let’s demonstrate the usage of each of those 2 formulae in the examples below.
EXAMPLE 1: A small part of a lake has been dedicated to parking canoes. If that area is 0.75 acres, what is the area in square rods?
Since our output is in square rods, we choose the first formula. There, we substitute 0.75 for AC and count as follows.
r^2 = ac*160 = 0.75*160 \\= 120 ~square ~rods
EXAMPLE 2: What is the area in acres of a pond that has an area of 360 square rods?
We will use the second formula, as our output is in acres and the input is in square rods. We substitute 360 for R2 and count as follows.
ac = r^2\div160 \\= 360\div160 = 2.25 ~ac
