How much does a 30 ft pole weigh (pine) with 50 board ft ?

Question

HE HAS THIS INFO: 1 CORD = 128 CUBIC FT: 1 CORD = ABOUT 5000 LBS: 1 CORD = 500 BOARD FEET.....
SO HE HAS 30 FT POLES AND WANTS TO KNOW HOW MANY LBS EACH POLE WEIGHS & HOW MANY CUBIC FT IS IN 1 POLE. THANKS

Answer 1

The first answer gave you the weight per pole, and by a similar method you can find the number of cubic feet per pole: If 1 cord = 128cubic feet, and if 1 cord = 500 board feet, then a the volume of a 50bdft pole = 128 / (500 / 50) = 12.8cubic feet, which is the answer for the data given.

For some probably irrelevant trivia:
I don't know if this is a just a math problem or a forestry question. If you ever happen to buy sawn lumber by the board foot, you will find a board foot is usually defined as 1 square foot * one inch thick, or 12bdft per cubic foot.
In this problem we have a 50bdft pole = 12.8ft^3 and 12.8 * 12 = 153.6, we also have 1 bdft = 10lbs, if you buy a 1 bdft pine board you will find it weighs far less. The reason for the difference is that the question is dealing with unsawn logs (poles), bdft is a measure of the final sawn lumber and there is considerable loss in sawing lumber. Also lumber is not dried until it is sawn, and green timber is much heavier than dry.

Answer 2

What Mike J says about the weight is accurate: each pole would weigh 50 lbs.

As for the volume, 1 board-foot is a volume of rough-cut wood that is 12" by 1" by 1 foot (width x thickness x length), or 144 cubic inches. It does not matter what shape this pole is in (cylindrical), if the guy says there are 50 board-feet in the wood, then the volume is 50 x 144 = 7200 cubic inches, or 50 cubic feet.

If you back-calculate the weight based on the weight of a cord of wood, the 2 weights do not match. That is because a cord of wood contains space in between the stacked wood, so the volume of a cord is much larger than the volume of solid wood. This is also why a cord cannot be a standardized measure.

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Answer 3

Dry Pine Wood has a density of 39.4 lbs per cubic ft.

If you know the diamter of the pole you can easily figure the cubic feet and calc it out.

If a 30 ft pole is equal to 50 board feet, then from what you provided...

1 cord = 5000 lbs = 500 board feet, then 10 lbs = 1 board feet

then 50 board feet weighs 500 lbs