How does wetting wood make it less likely to break when bent?

Question

haha, yahoo suggested this would go under men's health.

Answer 1

The first reference tells a little about where the water is and what difference it makes (but not why). The second might be a place to ask. They say the biggest difference is the water in the cell walls.

The third reference actually provides some science. The strength of the cell wall comes from long strands (microfibrils), each a bundle of long chains of cellulose polymers, cross-linked by another carbohydrate polymer (glycans), forming the kind of structure that gives truss bridges their strength. This structure is extremely strong, stronger than any structure found in animals. The only way such a cell can grow is for expansin proteins to break hydrogen bonds to 'unzip' these glycans.

That's as deep as I can go with the information available to me. D. J. Cosgrove is a leading researcher of this unzipping process. He's probably the best link to a deeper answer. My educated guess is that water is an essential medium for this process, both for protein mobility and for hydration of the various organic molecules.

Answer 2

Wood is an organic material and it is composed of tiny tubes or straws in addition to the space between these tubes. When wood is wet, it will absorb some water. The stiffness of wood decreases when it gets saturated. That means it will bend more (i.e. more flexible) when wet compared to when it is not saturated.

Answer 3

yes let it soak for a while