Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff from house stuff works dot com where
Speaker 1: smart happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question, what
Speaker 1: is the difference between a hardwood and a soft wood?
Speaker 1: When we talk about a hardwood floor, what are we
Speaker 1: actually talking about? As it turns out, a hardwood is
Speaker 1: not necessarily a harder material. It's not more dense or
Speaker 1: somehow stronger, And in the same way, a softwood is
Speaker 1: not necessarily a softer material, meaning less dense or softer
Speaker 1: or less strong. For example, balsa wood is one of
Speaker 1: the lightest, least dense woods. There is easily dented with
Speaker 1: your fingernail, and it's considered a hardwood. So what's going
Speaker 1: on here? The distinction between hardwood and softwood actually has
Speaker 1: to do with plant reproduction. All trees reproduced by producing seeds,
Speaker 1: but the seeds structure varies. Hardwood trees are angiosperms, plants
Speaker 1: that produce seeds with some sort of covering. This might
Speaker 1: be a fruit like an apple or a hard shell
Speaker 1: like an acorn. Soft Woods, on the other hand, are
Speaker 1: gymnas sperms. These plants let seeds fall to the ground
Speaker 1: as is, with no covering. Pine trees, which grows seeds
Speaker 1: in hard cones fall into this category. In conifers, like pines,
Speaker 1: these seeds are released into the wind once they mature.
Speaker 1: This spreads the plants seed over a wider area. For
Speaker 1: the most part, angiosperm trees lose their leaves during cold weather,
Speaker 1: while gymnasperms trees keep their leaves all year round. So
Speaker 1: it's also accurate to say that evergreens are soft woods
Speaker 1: and deciduous trees or hardwoods, the hardwood saw wood terminology
Speaker 1: does make some sense. Evergreens do tend to be less
Speaker 1: dense than deciduous trees, and therefore they're easier to cut,
Speaker 1: while most hardwoods tend to be more dense and therefore sturdier.
Speaker 1: But as the classification of Boston wood demonstrates, there's no
Speaker 1: minimum weight requirement to become a hardwood. For more on
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