Hooke's law (huks)
n.
The principle that the stress applied to stretch or compress a body is proportional to the strain or to the change in length thus produced, so long as the limit of elasticity of the body is not exceeded.
| Hooke's law (hks) A law stating that the stress applied to a material is proportional to the strain on that material. For example, if a stress on a metal bar of ten newtons per square centimeter causes it to be compressed by four millimeters, then a stress of 20 newtons per square centimeter will cause the bar to be compressed by eight millimeters. Hooke's law generally holds only up to the elastic limit of stress for that material. See also modulus of elasticity. |
law of elasticity discovered by the English scientist Robert Hooke in 1660, which states that, for relatively small deformations of an object, the displacement or size of the deformation is directly proportional to the deforming force or load. Under these conditions the object returns to its original shape and size upon removal of the load. Elastic behaviour of solids according to Hooke's law can be explained by the fact that small displacements of their constituent molecules, atoms, or ions from normal positions is also proportional to the force that causes the displacement