ABSTRACT
Modern agriculture has brought about the handling and processing of plant and animal materials by various means such as mechanical, thermal, electrical, optical and even sonic techniques and devices. Despite these ever increasing applications, little is known about the basic physical characteristics and properties of these materials. Specific heat and other thermal characteristics, electrical conductivity and dielectric constants, light transmittance characteristics, and such mechanical properties as stress-strain behavior, resistance to compression, impact and shear, and coefficient of friction are a few examples of these unknown properties. A knowledge of these properties should constitute important and essential engineering data in design of machines, structures, processes and controls; in analyzing and determining the efficiency of a machine or an operation; in developing new consumer products of plant or animal origins; and in evaluating and retaining the quality of the final product. Such basic information should be of value not only to engineers but also to food scientists and processors, plant and animal breeders, and other scientists who may exploit these properties and find new uses. To understand and appreciate the need for information on physical properties of plant and animal products, a few examples are given in the following.
