What does a tree weigh?

[Stereo]

Take an oak tree, freshly felled. It's 20" in diameter at the base and about 35 feet tall. The branches have been removed.

 

What would be a good estimate of the weight of the main stem?

[roseyweb]

Look in your forest mensuration book, blue book

 

if your desperate to know and don't have one I'll look in mine but that will require me getting of my bum

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Look in your forest mensuration book, blue book

 

if your desperate to know and don't have one I'll look in mine but that will require me getting of my bum

[yewhunter18]

id guess at approx 3 tonne

[slasherscot]

id guess at approx 3 tonne

 

ya think?

 

lucky if its 1/2 ton in the stem

[agg221]

I don't have any mensuration tables, so a quick calculation:

 

Assume it's a cylinder, average diameter of about 12in

Assume, being wet, that it has a density of about 1kg/dm3 (same as water)

Convert to metric - 0.3m average diameter, 11m long

pi x radius squared is 0.0675m2 end area

end area x length is approx 0.75m3 so approx three quarters of a ton.

 

I'll be interested to see how wrong this is!

 

Alec

[slasherscot]

I don't have any mensuration tables, so a quick calculation:

 

Assume it's a cylinder, average diameter of about 12in

Assume, being wet, that it has a density of about 1kg/dm3 (same as water)

Convert to metric - 0.3m average diameter, 11m long

pi x radius squared is 0.0675m2 end area

end area x length is approx 0.75m3 so approx three quarters of a ton.

 

I'll be interested to see how wrong this is!

 

Alec

 

just checked my tables.. i had 0.79 but ur close enough

[yewhunter18]

i heard 20'' dia 12' long weighed 1 tonne i have a lump of scotts prine 28'' in dia and 5' long and it half a tonne

[Shane]

One of my charts says oak at 50cm diam weighs 165kg per mtr.

Oak at 30cm diam is about 59kg.

If its 20 inch at the base and tapers 'typically' the average diameter would be say 12''

Approx. 10 mtrs at an AVERAGE of 12 inch (30 cms) would therefore be 590 kgs

But the extra weight at the bottom would be more than the reduced weight at the top

so it would probably be a bit more - best part of a ton. But thats my chart.

Variations in season with moisture content, rate of taper etc.

[slasherscot]

i heard 20'' dia 12' long weighed 1 tonne i have a lump of scotts prine 28'' in dia and 5' long and it half a tonne

 

12ft with a top diametre of 20" has a volume of 0.8 metres