The stere or stère (st) is a unit of

volume Volume is a measure of occupied three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). The de ...

in the original metric system equal to one

cubic metre The cubic metre (in Commonwealth English and international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures) or cubic meter (in American English) is the unit of volume in the International System of Units (SI). Its symbol is m ...

. The stere is typically used for measuring large quantities of

firewood Firewood is any wooden material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form, compared to other forms of wood fuel like pellets or chips. Firewood can ...

or other cut wood, while the cubic meter is used for uncut wood. The name was coined from the Greek στερεός ''stereós'', "solid", in 1795 in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

as a metric analogue to the cord. The unit was introduced to remove regional disparities of this former unit, for which the length could vary greatly from 6 to 13.5 m. It is not part of the modern metric system (SI) and is no longer a legal unit in France, but remains used in the commerce of firewood.

Background

The correspondence between stere and cubic meter of stacked wood is imprecise because it depends on the length of the logs used and on how irregular they are. The stere corresponds to 1 m³ of wood, made exclusively with logs of 1 m in length, all stacked parallel and neatly arranged. If the length of the logs is less than 1 m, the volume of visible wood decreases because the voids are better occupied. Thus the "stere" no longer corresponds to 1 m³, but to 0.8 m³ for logs of 50 cm, 0.7 m³ for logs of 33 cm and 0.6 m³ for logs of 25 cm. In Dutch and German, a closely related unit called ''kuub'' (Dutch), short for ''kubieke meter'', or "Kubikmeter" (German) which differs from a stere. Whereas a "kuub" or "Kubikmeter" is a solid cubic metre, as it was traditionally used for wood, a stere (in German: Raummeter) is a cubic metre pile of woodblocks. A stere or Raummeter is less than a kuub or full cubic metre of wood, because the spaces between the woodblocks are included in a stere, while they do not count towards a kuub or Kubikmeter. In Finnish, the same unit is known as ''motti'' (from Swedish ''mått'', "measure"). The stere as used in contexts outside the timber industry is not subject to the same ambiguity. In particular, stere and kilostere are sometimes used in hydrology, as the kilostere (1000 m³ or

megalitre The litre (international spelling) or liter (American English spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m3). ...

) is a slightly smaller metric analogue of an acre-foot (approximately 1233 m³), similar to the relationship of the

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

to the

short ton The short ton (symbol tn) is a measurement unit equal to . It is commonly used in the United States, where it is known simply as a ton, although the term is ambiguous, the single word being variously used for short, long, and metric ton. The vari ...

References

Units of volume Non-SI metric units Logging {{Forestry-stub ja:ステール

Background

See also

References