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