The property of certain materials that enables them to return to their original dimensions after an applied stress has been removed. In general, if a stress is applied to a wire, the strain will increase in proportion (see OA on the illustration) until a certain point called the limit of proportionality is reached. This is in accordance with Hooke's law. Thereafter there is at first a slight increase in strain with increased load until a point L is reached. This is the elastic limit ; up to this point the deformation of the specimen is elastic, i.e. when the stress is removed the specimen returns to its original length. Beyond the point L there is permanent deformation when the stress is removed, i.e. the material has ceased to be elastic and has become plastic . In the plastic stages individual materials vary somewhat; in general, however, at a point B there is a sudden increase in strain with further increases of stress — this is the yield point . Beyond the point C, the breaking stress , the wire will snap (which occurs at point D).
Elasticity
- scaler
- scanning
- scanning electron microscope
- scanning tunnelling microscope
- scattering of electromagnetic radiation
- schlieren photography
- Schmidt camera
- Schottky defect
- Schottky effect
- Schrieffer, John
- Schrödinger equation
- Schrödinger's cat
- Schrödinger, Erwin
- Schwarzschild radius
- Schwinger effect
- scintillation camera
- scintillation counter
- sclerometer
- scotopic vision
- screen grid
- screw
- seaborgium
- search coil
- Searle's bar
- second