What is the compression strength of pine wood?

Im building a bench. Im using 2"x10" pine. Is 5' between braces strong enough?

It depends on how many boards your are putting on your bench.

To give you an idea, I ran through some quick numbers for you.

@ 5'. one 2" x 10" x ?? pine board assuming a 400lb load (2-3 people) you will have deflection of .42" PER board which is fine. Less than 1/2 inch.

@ 4' your deflection is reduced to .22" PER board which is even better. You really shouldn't have a problem at 5', unless a 400lb guy jumps on the middle of your bench.

The maximum weight it will take in the middle before fracture is 688 lb @ 5'/brace and 860 @ 4'...and keep in mind this is per board so if you have two....you should be fine.

This is as long as it is standard pine. .