Richard Feynman famously stated “...trees are made of air, primarily. When they are burned, they go back to air, and in the flaming heat is released the flaming heat of the Sun which was bound in to convert the air into tree. And in the ash is the small remnant of the part which did not come from air, that came from the solid earth, instead.”
But how much air?
The following is a rough estimate as there are huge variables, which air which tree etc.
Trees are about 50% water and 50% carbon.
At 0 °C and normal sea level pressure a cubic meter of air weighs 1.3 kilos.
Air is 0.04% CO2 of which 27% is carbon. So a cubic meter of air contains 14 grams of carbon.
An average adult Oak tree weighs 14 tons of which 7 tons is carbon.
So this average Oak tree would need to process half a million cubic meters of air to build itself.
But how much air?
The following is a rough estimate as there are huge variables, which air which tree etc.
Trees are about 50% water and 50% carbon.
At 0 °C and normal sea level pressure a cubic meter of air weighs 1.3 kilos.
Air is 0.04% CO2 of which 27% is carbon. So a cubic meter of air contains 14 grams of carbon.
An average adult Oak tree weighs 14 tons of which 7 tons is carbon.
So this average Oak tree would need to process half a million cubic meters of air to build itself.
