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>bamboo tensile strength is higher than that of steel

What? Tensile strength of steel is like 400-1200MPa, Bamboo is < 100 MPa.

strictly speaking you're right. My statement is more along those lines:

http://www.ijstr.org/final-print/nov2015/Comparative-Analysi...

"Although, the tensile strength of steel is 2.5-3.0 times higher than bamboo and the specific gravity 6-8 times that of bamboo; but by counting their tensile strength/unit weight (bamboo vs steel), the tensile strength of bamboo is 3-4 times that of steel."

As yes, wood has some pretty impressive properties if you normalise by density. But that also means you need bulk to match other materials.

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