DIYbanter - View Single Post - Wood Question: Which is stronger, a round post or square post?

(larry) wrote in
om:

McQualude wrote in message
...
I found this question in another group (misc.rural)...
Which is stronger, a round post or square post? Assume the posts are
both made from the same wood and are both equivalent in width.

Don't listen to all these engineers. Wood should be used based on its
properties, not their theories. Moment of inertia? If they ever
touched a real piece of wood I would be surprised.

Well, I guess you should be surprised. You must be one of those folks who
doesn't let a little thing like physics get in the way of what you think is
right. Maybe you want to enlighten us on how wood resists bending in a
different way conceptually than other materials. Until then, crawl back
into your hole and leave the heavy lifting to someone who has both the
theoretical and practical experience. No material is going to match the
formulas exactly. Wood complicates matters further because it is
anisotropic (that means it has different physical properties in different
directions). However, the formulas (these aren't just theories, by the
way, much less *my* theories) will still give good guidance in answering a
question such as the one posted originally.

todd