Square Rods to Square Feet (sq rd to ft²)

1 square rod equals 272.25 square feet exactly.

1 square rod = 272.25 square feet

How to convert square rods to square feet

To convert square rods to square feet, multiply the number of square rods by 272.25. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply square feet by 0.003673094582 (rounded).

square feet = square rods × 272.25

Example: 10 square rods = 2,722.5 square feet.

About these units

Square Rod (sq rd)

US & ImperialTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

30.25 square yards (25.29 m²), also called a perch. 160 square rods make an acre.

Perch is the older name for this small square, and it traces back to the Roman pertica, a measuring pole. The word rod became the preferred surveyors' term in England, where land measurers carrying rods, poles or knotted cords were in demand after Henry VIII took over church estates in 1536. A square rod is the square on a rod of 16.5 feet, which works out to 272.25 square feet, or 30.25 square yards.

The odd-looking number makes sense through the acre. Edmund Gunter's 66-foot chain is four rods long, so a square chain holds 16 square rods, and ten square chains make an acre. That means 160 square rods fill an acre, and a rood holds 40. Metric equivalents are about 25.29 square meters, a little under the floor area of a small garage. Rods and perches turned up in deeds, tax records and plot descriptions for centuries, and a few English-speaking regions still quote small building plots in perches.

1 square rod = 25.29285264 square meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Rod (unit); Wikipedia: Chain (unit); Wikipedia: Acre

Square Foot (ft²)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

Exactly 0.09290304 m². The standard unit for floor areas and real estate in the US, UK and India.

Feet came first, and they were not all the same length. As a body-based unit, the foot ranged historically between about 250 and 335 millimeters, with ancient Greek and Roman feet near 300 mm. In medieval England a statute foot was set at 10/11 of an older Belgic foot, and Charlemagne's attempt around 790 to standardize units largely failed. The square foot is simply that length squared, so its size changed along with the foot.

The 1959 international agreement fixed the foot at exactly 0.3048 meter, so one square foot is exactly 0.09290304 m², or 144 square inches. The United Kingdom adopted the new foot in 1964. Today the square foot is the usual way of listing property in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Singapore and Hong Kong, although the measuring convention varies: agents may measure corner to corner, subtract unheated space, or add heated space that extends beyond the end-to-end measurement. The world's smallest park has been reported at 2.6 sq ft.

1 square foot = 0.09290304 square meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Square foot; Wikipedia: Foot (unit); NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: conversion factors

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