On Jul 7, 12:10 pm, (Doug Miller) wrote:
In article .com, RicodJour wrote:

On Jul 7, 11:05 am, (Doug Miller) wrote:
In article , "Eigenvector"
wrote:
I was kind of wondering why the wood wouldn't swell around the nail, making
it all but impossible to extract.

Because the wood swelling will make the holes *larger*, not smaller.

Why wouldn't the wood swell in all directions?

It does -- but it does not swell *uniformly* in all directions, because wood
does not have a uniform structure. Its fibers are long and narrow, with the
long axis parallel to the trunk of the tree. The extent of tangential
dimensional change (parallel to the growth rings) in response to changing
moisture content is, as a general rule, approximately double the extent of
radial dimensional change (perpendicular to the growth rings), and either one
is several orders of magnitude greater than the axial dimensional change
(parallel to the trunk of the tree).

To put it in somewhat simpler terms: when a piece of wood absorbs moisture, it
gets wider. It also gets thicker, but proportionately by only about half as
much as it increases in width. The length hardly changes at all.

There's no need to put it more simply - I'm more than passably
familiar with wood properties. It sounds like what you're saying -
correct me if I'm wrong - is that the wood fibers around the nail are
somehow different than the wood fibers not next to the nail. The wood
fibers run in the same direction, and the hole is drilled in the same
direction as well. How can the wood fibers react differently?

R