The 101 on Wood Science The 101 on Wood Science Wood describes
the predominant material that is the makeup of all species of
trees. While it is ultimately much more complicated it is,
structurally, similar to a rigid, closed cell foam. That means
it can, with sufficient energy, be crushed and absorb
significant energy, just as the EPS in most bicyle helmets is
designed to do. Different species of wood have somewhat
different properties of course and even within the same species
different samples of wood behave somewhat differently. But
almost any sample of wood is capable of absorbing more energy
than the types of plastics typically used in mass produced
bicycle helmets. When a force is exerted on a piece of wood the
response of the wood to the force is dependent also on the
piece's grain orientation. There are three types of grain in a
typical tree and these are Transverse, Radial and End grain (or
Perpendicular). These describe the way that wood cells “lay”. A
piece of wood impacted directly on the end grai