Explanation
| Material | Typical values for shear modulus (GPa) |
|---|---|
| Diamond | 478. |
| Steel | 79.3 |
| Copper | 44.7 |
| Titanium | 41.4 |
| Glass | 26.2 |
| Aluminium | 25.5 |
| Polyethylene | 0.117 |
| Rubber | 0.0006 |
| Glycerin | 0.000000255 |
| Water | 0.00000000016 |
The shear modulus is one of several quantities for measuring the stiffness of materials. All of them arise in the generalized Hooke's law:
- Young's modulus describes the material's response to linear strain (like pulling on the ends of a wire or putting a weight on top of a column),
- the bulk modulus describes the material's response to uniform pressure (like the pressure at the bottom of the ocean or a deep swimming pool)
- the shear modulus describes the material's response to shearing strains (like cutting it with dull scissors).
The shear modulus is concerned with the deformation of a solid when it experiences a force parallel to one of its surfaces while its opposite face experiences an opposing force (such as friction). In the case of an object that's shaped like a rectangular prism, it will deform into a parallelepiped. Anisotropic materials such as wood, paper and also essentially all single crystals exhibit differing material response to stress or strain when tested in different directions. In this case one may need to use the full tensor-expression of the elastic constants, rather than a single scalar value.
Read more about this topic: Shear Modulus
Famous quotes containing the word explanation:
“Herein is the explanation of the analogies, which exist in all the arts. They are the re-appearance of one mind, working in many materials to many temporary ends. Raphael paints wisdom, Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakspeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it. Painting was called “silent poetry,” and poetry “speaking painting.” The laws of each art are convertible into the laws of every other.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“To develop an empiricist account of science is to depict it as involving a search for truth only about the empirical world, about what is actual and observable.... It must involve throughout a resolute rejection of the demand for an explanation of the regularities in the observable course of nature, by means of truths concerning a reality beyond what is actual and observable, as a demand which plays no role in the scientific enterprise.”
—Bas Van Fraassen (b. 1941)
“How strange a scene is this in which we are such shifting figures, pictures, shadows. The mystery of our existence—I have no faith in any attempted explanation of it. It is all a dark, unfathomed profound.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)