Stress refers to the force applied to a material, whereas strain refers to the ____?

1 Answer
Jun 21, 2018

Strain refers to the deformation of the material under that force.

Explanation:

Strain is usually reported as a fractional change in dimensions. If you have a spring that's 200 mm long and you push on it to make the length 196 mm, that is a strain of -2% or -0.02 in the length direction. If you pull on the spring to make it 204 mm long, the strain in the length direction is +2% or +0.02.