Stere

Background

The correspondence between stere and cubic meters 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 (35.3 cu ft) of wood, made exclusively with logs of 1 m (3.3 ft) in length, all stacked parallel and neatly arranged. If the logs are 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 (28.3 cu ft) for 50 cm (19.7 in) logs, 0.7 m³ (24.7 cu ft) for 33 cm (13.0 in) logs and 0.6 m³ (21.2 cu ft) for 25 cm (9.8 in) logs.

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 (1,000 m³ (35,315 cu ft) or megalitre) is a slightly smaller metric analogue of an acre-foot (approximately 1,233 m³ (43,500 cu ft)), similar to the relationship of the metric tonne to the short ton.