Editing Encyclopedia:Measurements Debate (section)

==What's the most common, usual, easily understood metric equivalent for "acres?"==

:''This discussion was moved here from [[Wikipedia:Village pump]].''

Please do not answer unless you are a native of a region in which the metric system (systeme internationale) is commonly used in everyday life. Consider the following three sentences:

* The area of Central Park in New York city is 843 acres or _________________ 
* Boston's Logan International Airport occupies 2,400 acres or _____________
* The Emory family had a 640-acre ( ______________ ) farm in Grant County, Wisconsin.

Suppose that the blanks were to be filled in with an equivalent, using a metric unit of area. What unit of area would you expect to see used? What unit is most familiar, understandable, useful, comfortable to you? [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 12:07, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)

:For those sizes of area, hectares. [[User:Arwel Parry|Arwel]] 12:54, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)

:Shouldn't this discussion be at [[Wikipedia:Measurements Debate]]? Small areas (for example, size of carpets) are in [[square metre|m²]]; large areas (for example, size of countries) are in [[square kilometre|km²]]. [[User:Gdr|Gdr]] 13:24, 2004 Jul 4 (UTC)
:hectares is correct, but I confess (since i'm not a farmer) I sometimes find square metres or even square kilometres (for huge areas) easier to mentally picture. [[User:Erich gasboy|Erich]] 14:01, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)
:exactly what Erich said. [[User:Marnanel|Marnanel]] 15:29, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)
::Square meter feels best for me -- [[User:Chris 73|Chris 73]] | [[User talk:Chris 73|Talk]] 16:07, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)
:For those sizes, definitely km². [[User:Fredrik|Fredrik]] | [[User talk:Fredrik|talk]] 16:38, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)
::Absolutely not. In NZ usage, hectares would be used for all three examples given above. Even our largest farming units are always described in hectares (100,000 Ha+). In addition, the average person has a sense of how big the classic NZ "1/4 acre" section is, and can usually relate to a hectare being 10 of those, whereas a sq km is much harder to visualize. [[User:Dramatic|dramatic]] 11:39, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

:[[Hectare]]s are the commonest units for areas less than 1 km² and greater then 10 000 m². There are a million m² in a km², hectares fill the middle of this range quite usefully. But note that the [[are]] and the hectare are not proper [[SI]] units, they are tolerated but not encouraged. - [[User:Chrisjj|Chris Jefferies]] 19:55, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)

:I totally agree with Erich. Perhaps fifty or a hundred years ago, when the majority of people were much more informed in matters of land and farming, hectares would have been instantly understood by Europeans. Today, we don't have this immediate everyday connection to the unit (nor really to any other area unit larger than m², the measure of our houses and apartments). Most(?) people will know from school how large a hectare ''is'', though, so they can picture the size if they give it some thinking effort. Given that the numbers for the examples given would be a bit monstrous in either m² or km², hectares might just be the best compromise &ndash; but m² ''would'' be more readily understood. -- [[User:Jao|Jao]] 13:15, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

::843 acres ≈ 3.4 km², 2,400 acres ≈ 10 km², 640 acres ≈ 2.6 km². How are these "monstrous"? [[User:Fredrik|Fredrik]] | [[User talk:Fredrik|talk]] 21:02, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

:::They are not. I should have thought twice about the figures. :) -- [[User:Jao|Jao]] 11:33, 7 Jul 2004 (UTC)

: well the beaty of the metric system is that it doesn't take much effort to convert square metres to hectares to sq km!!! :D :D But I agree with the people who said hectares for areas of land such as farms, parks, etc -- 08:40, 10 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Rmhermen drew my attention to the fact that this issue has not yet reached consensus on the hectares versus km² issue. I made a bounded proposal (I can't remember where it was now!) a while back. I welcome further comments here and/or a bounded counter proposal. Since the debate affects metric readers more than non-metric readers, please indicate within your comments whether you would count yourself generally as a metric reader or a non-metric reader. Thanks.<br>
[[User:Bobblewik|Bobblewik]] 15:48, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)