Arrange these in order from greatest to least total acreage in the U.S.: roadsides, home lawns, golf courses.

Arrange these in order from greatest to least total acreage in the U.S.: roadsides, home lawns, golf courses.

• A. Roadsides > Home lawns > Golf courses
• B. Home lawns > Roadsides > Golf courses
• C. Golf courses > Roadsides > Home lawns
• D. Roadsides > Golf courses > Home lawns

Answer: (A)

Think about total land area as units times size per unit. Roadsides stretch along nearly every mile of the nation’s road network, including medians and shoulders, so even a modest right-of-way width added up across millions of miles creates a massive total. Golf courses, while individually large, exist only in thousands of sites, each covering a few hundred acres at most, so their combined area is comparatively small. Home lawns are everywhere too, but each yard is relatively small; add them up over millions of households and you get a very large total, yet still generally less than the expansive road corridors. In this view, roadsides cover the most land, followed by home lawns, with golf courses occupying the least.

Think about total land area as units times size per unit. Roadsides stretch along nearly every mile of the nation’s road network, including medians and shoulders, so even a modest right-of-way width added up across millions of miles creates a massive total. Golf courses, while individually large, exist only in thousands of sites, each covering a few hundred acres at most, so their combined area is comparatively small. Home lawns are everywhere too, but each yard is relatively small; add them up over millions of households and you get a very large total, yet still generally less than the expansive road corridors. In this view, roadsides cover the most land, followed by home lawns, with golf courses occupying the least.