Dictionary Definition
balsa
Noun
1 strong lightweight wood of the balsa tree used
especially for floats [syn: balsa
wood]
2 forest tree of lowland Central America having a
strong very light wood; used for making floats and rafts and in
crafts [syn: Ochroma
lagopus]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
From barco.Pronunciation
IPA: /ˈbɑlsə/Noun
- A large tree, Ochroma lagopus, native to tropical America, with wood that is very light in weight.
- The wood of this tree.
- A raft or float, used principally on the Pacific coast of South America.
Translations
a tree
- Hebrew: עץ [ets]
- Finnish: balsa
wood
- Hebrew: עץ [ets]
- Finnish: balsa
a raft or float
Hebrew: רפסודה [rafsoda]
Extensive Definition
Balsa (Ochroma pyramidale, synonym O. lagopus) is
a large, fast-growing tree
that can grow up to 30m
(100ft) tall,
native to tropical
South
America north to southern Mexico. It is
evergreen, or
dry-season deciduous
if the dry season is long, with large
(30–50 cm, 12-20 in) weakly palmately lobed leaves.
The name balsa derives from Spanish
for a raft.
The timber is very soft and light
with a coarse open grain. The density of dry balsa wood ranges from
100–200 kg/m³ (6.24-12.49 lb/ft³), with a typical density
of about 140 kg/m³ (8.74 lb/ft³) (about one third the
density of other kinds of hard wood). This makes it a very popular
material for model
building and buoyancy materials (lifebelts, etc.), and was
famously used by Thor
Heyerdahl in his raft Kon-Tiki. It is
also a very popular material to use when making wooden crankbaits for fishing, as it
is low density but high in strength. Balsa wood is used to make
very light, stiff structures in model
bridge tests and for the construction of light wooden aeroplanes, most famously the
World
War II de
Havilland Mosquito. It is also used in the floorpan of the Chevrolet
Corvette Z06 sandwiched between two sheets of carbon fibre. In
table tennis blades, a balsa layer is typically sandwiched between
two pieces of thin plywood.Balsa wood is also used
for making high-quality balsa
surfboards.
Despite being very soft, balsa is classified as a
hardwood, the softest
commercial hardwood. Today balsa is the most favoured Raw material
for wind rotor blade designers. Balsa wood is used as core material
in composites especially wind energy rotor blades for getting the
required strength on leading edge of rotor blade. But availability
of balsa is a critical issue today as plantation is limited to only
North American region.
See also
References
balsa in Danish: Balsatræ
balsa in German: Balsabaum
balsa in Spanish: Balsa (árbol)
balsa in French: Balsa (arbre)
balsa in Hebrew: בלזה
balsa in Japanese: バルサ
balsa in Polish: Ogorzałka wełnista
balsa in Portuguese: Balsa (madeira)
balsa in Russian: Бальза (дерево)
balsa in Slovenian: Balza
balsa in Finnish: Balsapuu
balsa in Swedish: Balsa