How many acres are in a section?

A section is a term used in the Public Land Survey System, which is commonly employed in the United States to describe land. Each section is defined as one square mile, which equals 1 mile by 1 mile. Since there are 5,280 feet in a mile, the area of a section can be calculated as follows:

1 mile × 1 mile = 5,280 feet × 5,280 feet = 27,878,400 square feet.

To convert square feet into acres, it's important to know that 1 acre is equal to 43,560 square feet. Therefore, dividing the total number of square feet in a section by the number of square feet in an acre gives:

27,878,400 square feet ÷ 43,560 square feet/acre = 640 acres.

This calculation confirms that a section indeed contains 640 acres, making this the correct answer. The other options, which suggest smaller numbers of acres, do not fit the definition of a section in the Public Land Survey System.