An acre is a unit of land measurement that is still widely used today. To understand how many acres are in a square mile, we first need to break down the measurements involved.
One square mile is defined as a square that measures one mile on each side. Since one mile is equivalent to 5,280 feet, a square mile is:
5,280 feet x 5,280 feet = 27,878,400 square feet.
On the other hand, one acre is defined as 43,560 square feet. To find out how many acres are in a square mile, we simply divide the total number of square feet in a square mile by the number of square feet in an acre:
27,878,400 square feet (in a square mile) ÷ 43,560 square feet (in an acre) = 640 acres.
So, there are 640 acres in a square mile.