Calculations for a Wood Bridge to the Moon

How wide a bridge could we build using the trees we cut annually…

Assuming we’re cutting at least 5 billion trees a year and the average trunk is 1 ft diam. x 30 ft long. and we attach them together (raft style)

Distance to the moon: ~240,000 miles x 5,280 ft = 1,270,000,000 ft

# of trees cut each year: 5,000,000,000 (5 billion)

Average trunk size: 1 ft Diam. x 30 ft Long

Normal width of North American highway lanes: 12 ft

…………………………………………..

Number of 30’ long trunks (attached end to end) needed to reach the moon:

Distance (in feet) ÷ length of each trunk

1,270,000,000 ft ÷ 30 ft =

42,333,333 trunks needed to cover the distance (1’ wide segment)

Number of segments that can be assembled with all trees we cut:

Total # of trees cut per year ÷ # of trunks needed for one segment

5,000,000,000 ÷ 42,333,333 =

118 segments

So, @ 1 ft per segment, our bridge is 118 ft wide

Highway lanes are usually 12’ wide, so that’s 9.8 lanes (pretty close to the width of a 10 lane highway)

So, with all the trees we cut, we could build a 10 lane wide bridge to the moon, every single year..!

And note that 5 billion trees per year is the low estimate – it’s likely double that.