How much paper can be made from a tree?

Although it seems simple, the answer to this question is really quite complicated. There are many factors which influence the amount of paper that can be made from one tree.

Paper manufactured in the U.S. is probably made of wood fiber. But where did the fiber come from? A whole tree? Wood chips from a saw mill? Old copy paper? Maybe a combination of all three?

If the paper was made from a whole tree, how old and how big was the tree? What kind of tree was it?
Finally, a lot depends on the type of paper. What is its end use? And how was it manufactured?

As you can see, there are so many factors involved, it is impossible to arrive at any one figure. To help explain these variables, let's first take a look at the raw material used to make paper.