STERE
(steer)
A
unit of volume equal to a cubic meter used as a measure for
cordwood Common clues: One
cubic meter; Unit of volume; About a quarter of a cord; Cordwood
measure; Metric measure; About 1.3 cubic yards; Firewood
measure Crossword
puzzle frequency:
3 times a year Video: Perfect
Cord of Wood
The
stere or stère is a unit of volume in the original metric
system equal to one cubic metre. The name was coined from the
Greek στερεός stereos
'solid' in 1793 France as a metric equivalent to the cord. The
stère is typically used for measuring large quantities of
firewood or other cut wood, while the cubic meter is used for
uncut wood. It is not part of the modern metric system (SI).
In
Dutch there's also a kuub, short for kubieke meter which is
similar but different. Whereas a "kuub" is a full cubic
metre, as it was traditionally used for wood a stère is a
cubic metre pile of woodblocks. Such a stère is a little
bit less than a kuub or full cubic metre of wood, because the
spaces between the woodblocks are included in a stère
while they're not in a kuub. In Finnish, the same unit is known
as motti (from Swedish mått, "measure").
Note
that the stère as used in contexts outside the timber
industry is not subject to the same ambiguity. In particular,
stère and kilostère are sometimes used in
hydrology, as the kilostere is a slightly larger metric analog of
an acre-foot, similar to the relationship of the tonne and
(short) ton.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Stere".
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