A trick question

[Delmonico]

Had a disscussion here at work the other day, kinda funny cause all the ones who think they are brillant have been wrong, if you think you know, think again before you answer, things might not be as they seem.

How many acres are there in a section of land?

[Ozark Tracker]

well I'll go ahead and say what everybody's thinking about    640 acres.   

[Short Knife Johnson]

Are you also wanting the area that makes up the road allowance?

Around here originally, everything was surveyed without allowing room for roads.  It all had to be re-surveyed to allow 33 feet (2 rods) for municipal roads on 3 sides.  The grid system here run 2 miles North and South, then one mile East and West.  An acre is 16 1/2 feet on the half mile, so that would give an extra 6 acres or so right?  

646

[Delmonico]

well I'll go ahead and say what everybody's thinking about    640 acres.   

Not always.  But there is 640 acres in a square mile.

[Delmonico]

Are you also wanting the area that makes up the road allowance?

Around here originally, everything was surveyed without allowing room for roads.  It all had to be re-surveyed to allow 33 feel (2 rods) for municipal roads on 3 sides.  The grid system here run 2 miles North and South, then one mile East and West.  An acre is 16 1/2 feet on the half mile, so that would give an extra 6 acres or so right?  

646

Interesting, but once again you folks up north do things different.  Around here the center of the road if there is one is the section line.

[Silver Creek Slim]

A section of land is supposed to have 640 acres. It all depends on how worn the chain links were when they surveyed it.

Slim

[Short Knife Johnson]

Interesting, but once again you folks up north do things different.  Around here the center of the road if there is one is the section line.

Yeah, you're not kidding.  Ummm, OK.  Now we dig into the "trick answer bag."

-You don't bury survivors... nope, not it.

-A man walks on all fours in the morning of life, on two legs at noon, and uses a cane in the evening of his life.  Not quite.  That's Egpytian mythology.

-My name is Nobody!  Oh wait, that's Homer's Odyessy.

-Fourty Two!.

-Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin!!  Getting closer.

-I would have a dead neighbour and all six apples.  Oh it's on the tip of my tongue.

-You have many friends who eagerly hope for your success.  Left over fortune cookie... delicious.

That's it, I give up!

[litl rooster]

well I'll go ahead and say what everybody's thinking about    640 acres.  

I was always under the impression,  640 acre= a square mile or one section. 160 acre equalled a quarter section what the Homesteaders act deeded


but I'd been wrong before

[Texas Lawdog]

It seems farther out there when you're on a tractor.

[J.D. Yellowhammer]

I know the answer to this, but I'd be cheatin' to say....

[Delmonico]

I know the answer to this, but I'd be cheatin' to say....

Slim is close.

[J.D. Yellowhammer]

Slim is close.

Close but no Cee-Gar!

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

I looked at several sites, and they all say 640 acres in a square mile.  Your question was how many acres in a SECTION OF LAND.  Nominally a section IS equivalent to a square mile in area, regardless of shape.

I believe that the law would give priority to the actual surveyed section, so the answer would depend on calculating the area of the section AS SURVEYED.

Having worked briefly in a land titles office, I've seen air photos of some really weird sections!

[Delmonico]

I looked at several sites, and they all say 640 acres in a square mile.  Your question was how many acres in a SECTION OF LAND.  Nominally a section IS equivalent to a square mile in area, regardless of shape.

I believe that the law would give priority to the actual surveyed section, so the answer would depend on calculating the area of the section AS SURVEYED.

Having worked briefly in a land titles office, I've seen air photos of some really weird sections!

Bingo, The Wiki is pretty much on this time:

In U.S. land surveying under the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), a section is an area nominally one square mile, containing 640 acres (2.6 km²), with 36 sections making up one survey township on a rectangular grid. Due to such things as survey errors, poor instrumentation, difficult terrain, and sloppy work by surveyors it is common for actual sections to differ from the PLSS ideal one square mile. The distortions and errors were, by design, distributed to the northern and western edges of each township. As a result the sections in these areas diverge the most from the ideal shape and size. In addition there was a need to regularly adjust the entire township grid to account for distortions caused by the curvature of the Earth and the convergence of meridians toward the poles. In places where the grid was corrected, or where two grids based on different principal meridians came together, section shapes are often highly warped. Despite the survey errors and flaws, once the grid was established it remained in force mainly because historical boundaries hold legal precedent over new surveys evidence.

Some of them out in the Sandhills are pretty off.

[Leo Tanner]

The big question is how many belly achers on a section of land.  As far as I can tell it's a pretty high number.

[Delmonico]

The big question is how many belly achers on a section of land.  As far as I can tell it's a pretty high number.

Out south of town on the 5-20 acre horse yuppie plots there is a lot.

[Leo Tanner]

Out south of town on the 5-20 acre horse yuppie plots there is a lot.

Good thing they are doing the census this year.

[Delmonico]

OK, another one, some of us old pharts get it right away, ain't hard, just think before you answer:


How many beans are there in a jar?

[Texas Lawdog]

Del, Does the OWS have any of those  B Western shirts like you're wearing in the avatar? You've always been a "snappy" dresser!

[Leo Tanner]

OK, another one, some of us old pharts get it right away, ain't hard, just think before you answer:


How many beans are there in a jar?

All of them.