Square Kilometers to Sections (km² to section)

1 square kilometer equals 0.3861006141 sections (rounded).

1 square kilometer = 0.3861006141 sections

How to convert square kilometers to sections

To convert square kilometers to sections, multiply the number of square kilometers by 0.3861006141. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply sections by 2.58999847 (rounded).

sections = square kilometers × 0.3861006141

Example: 10 square kilometers = 3.861006141 sections.

About these units

Square Kilometer (km²)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One million square meters (100 hectares). Used for the area of cities, countries and lakes.

Metric land measure took a surprisingly long time to settle on the kilometer. The meter was defined in 1799, yet people initially preferred the myriameter, 10,000 meters, and the French phrase myriamètres par heure was still in print in 1802. The Netherlands adopted the kilometer in 1817 under the name mijl. Once the kilometer was established, the square kilometer followed naturally as the unit for areas too large to count comfortably in hectares or square meters.

One square kilometer is 1,000,000 square meters, or 100 hectares, about 0.3861 square miles or 247.1 acres. A useful picture comes from history: many medieval European cities were enclosed by walls around roughly a square kilometer, with Delft at about 0.9 km² and Lucca at about 1.09 km². A standard 18-hole golf course of 6,000 meters needs about 0.8 km². The symbol km² means the square of a kilometer, not a thousand square meters. The planned Square Kilometre Array radio telescope takes its name from the collecting area it aims for.

1 square kilometer = 1,000,000 square meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Square kilometre; Wikipedia: Kilometres per hour

Section (section)

US land surveyTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

One square US survey mile (640 acres). The basic unit of the US Public Land Survey System.

Under the Land Ordinance of 1785, territory outside the existing states could not be sold or settled until it had been surveyed, and the basic parcel of that grid was the section: a square mile, about 2.6 square kilometers, holding 640 acres. Thirty-six of them make a township. Numbering runs back and forth in a snaking pattern, starting with section 1 in the northeast corner and ending with section 36 in the southeast.

Sections were meant to be cut into smaller pieces. A quarter section is 160 acres, and the Homestead Act of 1862 let a settler claim that amount after living on it and improving it for five years. Quarter-quarters of 40 acres are still used in legal descriptions. Section 16 was set aside to fund local schools, and in several western states section 36 was added too. In practice few sections are perfect squares, because the curve of the Earth, compass errors and rough terrain bent the lines, and the original survey monuments still take legal precedence over later measurement.

1 section = 2,589,998.47 square meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Section (United States land surveying); Wikipedia: Public Land Survey System

Related conversions

See all area units.