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Balsa vs. PP Homopolymer

Balsa belongs to the wood-based materials classification, while PP homopolymer belongs to the thermoplastics. There are 8 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (16, in this case) are not shown. Please note that the two materials have significantly dissimilar densities. This means that additional care is required when interpreting the data, because some material properties are based on units of mass, while others are based on units of area or volume.

For each property being compared, the top bar is balsa and the bottom bar is PP homopolymer.

Metric UnitsUS Customary Units

Material Properties

Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa 7.0
45 to 64
Density, g/cm3 0.13
0.91 to 1.2
Elongation at Break, % 1.2
3.0 to 80
Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K 1700
1230 to 1900
Strength to Weight: Axial, points 30
11 to 21
Strength to Weight: Bending, points 99
27 to 37
Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa 14
36 to 93
Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K 6.5
30 to 90