Stere

For the Romanian writer, see Constantin Stere.
The stère as a cubic metre of stacked firewood

The stere or stère is a unit of volume in the original metric system equal to one cubic metre. The name was coined from the Greek στερεός stereos, "solid", in 1793 France as a metric analogue to the cord. The stère is typically used for measuring large quantities of firewood or other cut wood,[1] while the cubic meter is used for uncut wood.[2] It is not part of the modern metric system (SI).

In Dutch there's also a kuub, short for kubieke meter which is similar but different. Whereas a "kuub" is a full cubic metre, as it was traditionally used for wood a stère is a cubic metre pile of woodblocks. Such a stère is a little bit less than a kuub or full cubic metre of wood, because the spaces between the woodblocks are included in a stère while they're not in a kuub. In Finnish, the same unit is known as motti (from Swedish mått, "measure").

Note that the stère as used in contexts outside the timber industry is not subject to the same ambiguity.[3] In particular, stère and kilostère are sometimes used in hydrology, as the kilostere is a slightly larger metric analog of an acre-foot, similar to the relationship of the tonne and (short) ton.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Thierry Thomasset. "Le stère" (PDF). Tout sur les units de mesure [All about the units of measure] (in French). Universit de Technologie de Compigne. Retrieved 2011-03-21.
  2. ↑ For example:"Rough guide to calculating timber volumes" (PDF). Forestry Commission.
  3. ↑ Webster 1913
  4. ↑ doi:10.1126/science.34.885.813
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