ABSTRACT
From the Stone Age to the present silicon-driven Information Age, materials have occupied the center stage in the development and advancement of civilization. The domain of materials science and engineering is a very exciting area directed toward understanding why metals and materials behave the way they do, how materials are made, and how new materials with unique properties can be created. This chapter provides the reader a flavor of various conventional mechanical test methods in practice and the requirements of specimen sizes as per the standards. In the latter case, the knowledge of mechanical properties is of interest to materials and metallurgical engineers who are involved in material processing and fabrication. This necessarily involves an understanding of the relationships between the microstructure of materials and their mechanical properties. Mechanical testing is a general term referring to the broad range of activities involved with the determination of mechanical properties and behavior of materials and structures.
