Question

a piece of wood weighing 10 ounces is found to have a weight of 8 ounces after drying. the moisture content was:

Answer 1

Moisture content should be the difference of the weight of the object wet (10 oz.) and the weight of the object when it was dry(8 oz.)
So,
10 oz. - 8 oz. =moisture content, or 2 oz.