Stress and Strain

Stress and strain are concepts used to describe how materials respond to forces. Stress is the internal force within a material per unit area, caused by external loads like pulling or pushing. Strain is the resulting deformation or change in shape and size relative to the original, due to that force. Essentially, stress measures how hard you’re pushing or pulling, while strain measures how much the material stretches, compresses, or deforms in response. Together, they help engineers understand a material’s strength and flexibility under different forces.