Principia Woochuckia

Yesterday the sky took on its winter look for the first time this autumn. You know what I mean? Emily Dickinson describes it perfectly in her Poem No. 258:

There's a certain Slant of light,
  Winter Afternoons--
    That oppresses, like the Heft
      Of Cathedral Tunes--

Exactly. And fittingly yesterday the arborist (also known as the guy with a pickup and chain saw) dropped off my first load of wood for the coming winter.

Which brings me to today's math topic: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

While we don't yet have a Gizmo to answer this question of the ages, this doesn't mean mathematicians haven't deeply considered the problem. If you're wondering, according to Stephen Lavelle "roughly 1*10 18 kg of wood could potentially be chucked by a woodchuck operating at maximum efficiency (this is only an approximate maximum limit)." There you have it. Heh heh …