6/1/2021 Calculating the area (acreage) of a four-sided lot - Math Central

Math Central Quandaries & Queries

Question from many people:

I have a real estate property and the lot size is something I need to find out. I know the lengths of
the four sides, but it isn't a rectangle, it is an odd shape. How do I find the acreage?

Frequently Asked Question

We often get questions about the area of parcels of land. We've created a tool (below) that should help you
if your property has four sides you can measure. In addition to the four sides, we'll need to know either a
diagonal or the degrees of one of the angles. Note that this tool assumes the shape is convex, not
concave.

Start by choosing one corner of your property to be corner A. Then label the other three corners clockwise
as B, C and D.

Please enter all your information into the form Then click Recalculate to find the area of
below. the property.

All distances are measured in: Here are my calculations:

meters yards
Enter all of these measurements:
Distance from A to B is 250
Distance from B to C is 114
Distance from C to D is 224.5
Distance from D to A is 124.5
Enter one of these measurements:
Angle at corner A is 90
Angle at corner B is
Angle at corner C is
Angle at corner D is
Diagonal distance from A to C is
Diagonal distance from B to D is
feet Use the law of cosines to find the diagonal
length BD:
SQRT( 124.52 + 2502 - 2(250)(124.5)cos(90)
)
= 279.29.
With the diagonal, the lot is divided into two
triangles and I know all the lengths of the sides
of these triangles, so I can use Heron's formula
to find the area of each triangle:
SADB = (250 + 279.29 + 124.5) / 2 = 326.89
AADB = SQRT( (326.89)(326.89 - 250)(326.89
- 279.29)(326.89 - 124.5) )
degrees = 15562.
degrees SCDB = (114 + 279.29 + 224.5) / 2 = 308.89
degrees ACDB = SQRT( (308.89)(308.89 - 114)
(308.89 - 279.29)(308.89 - 224.5) )
degrees = 12265.
That makes a total for the two triangles (which
is the area of your property) of:

*Note: if you put ridiculous information into this form,

12265 + 15562
you should expect to get nonsense answers back. = 27827 square feet

= 3091.9 square yards

= 2585.2 square meters

= 0.63882 acres
= 0.25852 hectares

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