-2

How much (weight in kilograms) dried whole black pepper would fit into 1 cubic meter at 12% maximum moisture?

Cascabel
  • 58,065
  • 24
  • 178
  • 319
Pretty_Girl100
  • 11
  • 1
    This may not be the correct site for this question--this sounds like mathematics. – mech Feb 08 '18 at 19:49
  • 3
    @mech "What is the density of pepper?" (which is basically the underlying question) wouldn't be on topic on a math-ish site. I think this is okay enough here. If it's off-topic it'd probably be because it's commercial/industrial scale, so it's maybe not exactly *cooking*, but eh, if we'd answer it if it asked about 1L instead of 1m^3, I'm inclined not to split hairs. – Cascabel Feb 08 '18 at 20:48
  • Good point, and fair enough. – mech Feb 08 '18 at 20:49
  • It does sound like a homework question, though :) – Erica Apr 16 '19 at 00:13

1 Answers1

3

USDA nutrition facts say it's 2.9 grams per teaspoon, which gives 588kg/m^3.

Cascabel
  • 58,065
  • 24
  • 178
  • 319
  • That's a lot of pepper... – Catija Feb 09 '18 at 03:25
  • 1
    no, that site is not accurate .. the non ground pepper (whole pepper) take much space than ground pepper because it's round. So, ground pepper may weigh that much, but dry whole pepper is clearly will not fit that much of weight of dry whole pepper. – Pretty_Girl100 Feb 09 '18 at 06:33
  • 2
    @Pretty_Girl100 I also went and measured myself. I have a 14.1oz container of whole black pepper, and it's 700mL. That gives 2.8g/tsp, close enough to the USDA's number, so I am inclined to trust that it's approximately correct. (I also trust the USDA's actual measurements more than speculation. It's a government agency that uses multiple independent reports to compile that data. As for the ground vs whole things, it may well be less dense when ground because it ends up very irregular and packs badly.) – Cascabel Feb 09 '18 at 06:40
  • 1
    Further evidence for ground being less dense being correct (beyond the USDA being a trustworthy source): the brand that sells the whole pepper I have also sells ground, same container size, and it's 12.7 oz for their coarse ground and 12.3 oz for fine. – Cascabel Feb 09 '18 at 14:47
  • 1
    @Pretty_Girl100 Worst case, since unground peppercorns are pretty spherical, assume a packing fraction of 0.75. But ground pepper is light enough that it will retain a significant amount of air in the mix so it's not at all unreasonable for it to end up being roughly the same weight as unground unless effort is expended on compressing it. – Perkins Apr 15 '19 at 23:26