A national company desires a parcel of land that must be 4 times the size of its proposed building. If the building is designed to be 20,000 sq ft, what is the minimum parcel size that should be purchased?

To determine the minimum parcel size that should be purchased, first, calculate the required land area based on the size of the building. Since the building is meant to be 20,000 square feet and the parcel of land needs to be 4 times the size of the building, the calculation would be:

20,000 sq ft (building size) x 4 = 80,000 sq ft (parcel size).

Next, convert the parcel size from square feet to acres for a more practical understanding of land measurement. One acre is equivalent to 43,560 square feet. To find out how many acres are in 80,000 square feet, divide the total square feet by the number of square feet in an acre:

80,000 sq ft ÷ 43,560 sq ft/acre ≈ 1.84 acres.

This indicates that the minimum parcel size required is just under 2 acres. Since the question is asking for the minimum size that should be purchased, rounding up to the nearest whole number gives us 2 acres. Thus, the most appropriate choice would be 2 acres, as it meets the requirement of being sufficient to accommodate the building size four times over.