wut woud happen if i soaked balsa wood in water?

Question

would it make a diffrence if it was hot or cold? and wut would happen if i dried it out?

Answer 1

In the space of minutes, the surface would be wetted and the underlying 0.5 cm or so would start to get wet.

Over some hours to a few days, the intercellar space (between the wood cells) would take on water and the density would increase to about 0.3.

Over many weeks, it would be become "waterlogged" and the intracellar (within the cells) would start to become saturated. Its density would go up to .8-.9 and it would only bit a little bit bouyant. Many woods will get so waterlogged as to sick. I'm not sure Balsa ever would. I've found pieces of Balsa wood in the Aleutian islands - clearly a long, long ways from where it was grown and lumbered.

All diffusion happens faster at higher temperatures, so the above time scales would be accelerated in hot water. Cold temperature (<40F or so) refrigerate materials (like the milk at home) so bacterial and macroscopic critters don't eat it so quickly. Untreated wood is subject to a lot of worms infestion, especially in salt water. And especially in the tropics where all biological processes happen faster.

If you dry out wet wood, it will eventually get dry and light again. Heat and dry air and wind speed that process up a lot. Starting with a green log, the intercellar moisture comes and goes in a few days with changes in relative humidity. Intracellar moisture takes longer and is why timber companies and even firewood suppliers should "season" wood for a year prior to use. It takes a long time for the moisture to get through those cell walls.