Re: What is the value of Young's Modulus in wood

The book Smithsonian Physical Tables (Smithsonian Institution Press) has tables giving mechanical properties of various woods. In the 9th edition (1969) the tables are on pages 246 and 254.

Let's take a typical wood (unfortunately you didn't say what kind of wood you are using!), like oak. The table starting on page 246 lists the "modulus of elasticity" (which IS Young's modulus!) for southern red oak as 1.49 x 10⁶ pounds per square inch. If you convert that to Newtons per square meter (which is the usual SI units of Young's modulus) you get 1.03 x 10¹⁰ Newton's per square meter. That's within about a factor of 3 of your value, assuming your units are Newtons per square meter.

Most woods in the tables are in the range of oak, while the wood having the largest modulus in the table is mangrove, which is listed at 2.95 x 10⁶ pounds per square inch, which is 2.03 x 10¹⁰ Newtons per square meter. However, mangrove is an unusual wood, and most woods have a modulus closer to oak.

There is a good page in Britannica.com here that describes the modulus and has some links to information that may be useful.

John Link, MadSci Physicist