Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for January 12, 2012

Hmmmmm …. Define dry volume. Depending on the humidity, wood shrinks as it loses moisture, while dry wood expands as it absorbs moisture.

8×4×4 feet … yeah, that’s an official cord of wood.Most often, it’s sold as a ‘face cord’ 4×8 feet, with the depth being the length the customer can burn in their stove/fireplace — usually something between 16-20 inches. Sometimes “full cord” is advertized, but that is more often two “face cords” … doubling up that 16-20 length leaves an unmentioned hole missing in the middle.

a cord of split wood contains more wood than an unsplit cord as there is less space between pieces. a face cord measures 4 feet by 8 feet by about 1 foot. and then there is the “pickup load” depending on the truck and the bed size.

The space in between each piece of stacked wood should be just big enough for the squirrel but too small for the cat…

Why has there never been any limit on what the size each piece of wood should be? I ask only because if someone stacked a pile of what I would twigs or very small pieces to the required 8×4×4 would that still be a cord? I had heard that each piece should have a diameter no smaller than 4" Or is it a matter of Consumers Beware

You cut a bunch of wood and stack it over there. Or buy it, then you need to say how much. You burn it all winter. Come spring, if you’re froze dead, it wasn’t enough wood. Precise cords are for lawyers

Baby, he was born to run.

I ‘wood’ hope that everybody is in ‘a cord’!

That Tripod Fish has a lot of ‘fin’!

Defining a cord of wood goes on a “Believe it or Not”? That may be the lamest one ever.

In defense of Ripley’s, a lot of people have no idea how firewood is measured or even that there is an official standard. Perhaps it would have been better presented as “Believe it or not, there are official measurements even for firewood,” but then you get into the problem of how wordy you can get in the small space newspapers allot to any cartoon.

That is one impressive accomplishment! 100 years old, and not only did he compete in a marathon – he completed it, AFTER crossing the ocean! Well done!