User blog:QuaestComm/An Experiment for Estimating Exact Wood Densities

I conducted an experiment recently in-game in which I created planks of the 13 commonly-available wood types with Plank Cross Sections of X1 Y1, then chopped them with a Basic Hatchet (which has a convenient Damage value of 0.2) and counted the number of swings required for each plank. For a few woods, I also tested larger planks and determined that plank health scales with cross-sectional area, confirming that wood health density is a meaningful quantity.

Below is the data I collected as well as my estimates for the numerical health densities of the common woods (note that, due to the black chopping plate being slightly bigger than the plank being chopped, my health density estimates are not the same as my calculated damage values).

"BASIC HATCHET TESTS (0.2 damage) OAK: 11 chops (1x1), 21 chops (2x1), 40 chops (2x2) CHERRY: 17 chops (1x1), 34 chops (2x1), 52 chops (3x1) ELM: 26 chops (1x1), 53 chops (2x1) KOA: 30 chops (1x1) FROST: 61 chops (1x1) LAVA: 35 chops (1x1) CAVECRAWLER: 27 chops (1x1) WALNUT: 32 chops (1x1) ZOMBIE: 27 chops (1x1) GOLD: 56 chops (1x1) PINE: 28 chops (1x1) FIR: 28 chops (1x1) BIRCH: 35 chops (1x1)"

"CALCULATED DAMAGE (number of chops * 0.2 damage/chop) OAK: 2.2 damage (1x1), 4.2 damage (2x1), 8 damage (2x2) CHERRY: 3.4 damage (1x1), 6.8 damage (2x1), 10.4 damage (3x1) ELM: 5.2 damage (1x1), 10.6 damage (2x1) KOA: 6 damage (1x1) FROST: 12.2 damage (1x1) LAVA: 7 damage (1x1) CAVECRAWLER: 5.4 damage (1x1) WALNUT: 6.4 damage (1x1) ZOMBIE: 5.4 damage (1x1) GOLD: 11.2 damage (1x1) PINE: 5.6 damage (1x1) FIR: 5.6 damage (1x1) BIRCH: 7 damage (1x1)"

"ESTIMATED HEALTH DENSITY (health/square unit) OAK: 2 CHERRY: 3.5 ELM: 5.25 KOA: 6 FROST: 12 LAVA: 7 CAVECRAWLER: 5.5 WALNUT: 6.5 ZOMBIE: 5.5 GOLD: 11 PINE: 5.5 FIR: 5.5 BIRCH: 7" Feel free to run tests of your own and double-check my numbers if you have any doubts about my findings. If you have any of the rare (or even unobtainable) woods, I would love to see the results of tests on those woods (though I would definitely recommend using an End Times Axe, not a Basic Hatchet, to perform any tests on Phantom Wood).