ABSTRACT
A material specimen put under load deforms and with sensitive instruments we can measure, at a given time and temperature, its new shape. The first and simplest response idealization is linear-elastic behavior. If, in our test, we increase the load and the deformations increase proportionately, the material is linear. If we unload the specimen and it returns to its original shape, it is also elastic. Hooke was the first to do experiments of this sort and to recognize that this fundamental concept, now called Hooke’s Law,* defining a linear load-deformation relationship could lead to revolution in structural mechanics.
