Wood: Building Block of the World

A few weeks ago, I built my very own diy desk. As I built the desk, I realized how useful wood still is in modern society. It not only makes up almost all of the furniture in my house, but also makes up the structure of my house itself! Since there are so many types of wood, there are many properties that can make it appealing. 

The desk I built

Since wood can almost be found anywhere (here in Western Pennsylvania, at least), there is almost always a ready supply. Since there is so much of it, it can be used in so many applications. Since wood is a natural material, it doesn’t have to go through nearly as much processing as some other materials, such as silicon or steel.

Another useful property of many types of wood is its strength. For a natural material, wood is exceptionally strong. Boasting a compressive strength of up to 8470psi, Yellow Pine Wood is strong enough to hold up my entire house! Yellow Pine also has a relatively high compressive strength and bending strength while being a hard material. Since so many types of wood are so strong, they can be used in so many instances. For example, if wood wasn’t so strong, we wouldn’t see wood being used in construction.

Construction of My House

Although, wood does come with a few disadvantages. The biggest problem facing wood is its potential future availability. While I have mentioned that it is a plentiful material, it might not be so in the future. If we are not responsible when it comes to cutting trees down and replanting them, our seemingly infinite supply might run out. If we want to benefit from all of the useful properties of wood, we have to be responsible in how we harvest it. However, if we can sustain the global wood supply, then we can continue to use wood as the roots of our construction.