Materials

Density - measure of the compactness of a substance and relates the mass of a substance to how much space it takes
up
m
P = v
The density of an object depends on what it is made of and also does not change
depending on how much of the material there is. It also dictates whether something
floats or sinks, greater than 1, it will sink.

HookesLaw
Hookes law - the extension is proportional to force applied up to the limit of
proportionality
If a wire is attached to a support and allowed to stretch with weights. For the forces to
be in equilibrium, there must be an equal and opposite reaction force exerted upwards.
In this experiment, the wire must be light because otherwise the force acting
downwards due to its weight and not the masses cannot be ignored as
negligible.

F = k L
K is the stiffness constant and depends on the object being stretched

A metal spring also changes length when you apply opposite forces - applies to both
compressive and tensile forces

Limitofproportionality
There is a limit to the force you can apply to a spring or wire before it no longer obeys Hookes law
A straight line gradient on the graph of force against extension shows the material obeying Hookes law. For the material
to obey Hookes law, the graph must also have to go through the origin

When the force becomes great enough, the material reaches its elastic limit in
which it will not return to its original shape when the force is removed-
permanently stretched
Elastic limit is usually a small force from the limit of proportionality
The limit of proportionality may also be known as the Hookes law limit

Investigatingextension


Object supported at the top and then weights
should be added one at a time
The weights added should depend on material,
therefore do a trial experiment to see what mass will cause an appropriate amount of
extension
Record the extension after each mass is added (final length - initial length)
Plot graph of load against extension
Elasticstretches
If a deformation is elastic then the material returns to its original
shape once the forces have been removed (no permanent
extension)

When a material is put under tension, the atoms are pulled apart from
one another.
Atoms can move small distances relative to their equilibrium
positions without actually changing position in the material. Once the
load is removed, the atoms return to their equilibrium distance apart.
For a metal, elastic deformation happens as long a Hookes law is
obeyed.

PlasticStretches
If a deformation is plastic, the material is permanently stretched after the force is removed, the atoms do not return to their
original positions. A material that has passed its elastic limit shows plastic deformation.

StressandStrain
Two samples of the same material will stretch different amounts depending on the dimensions of the material.
Therefore, Hookes law is not a fair way to measure stiffness constant because k changes depending on the sample of
the material.

Tensilestress
Defined as the force applied divided by the cross - sectional area
F
stress = A

Tensilestrain
Defined as the ratio between change in length and the original length

L
strain = L
Strain has no units because it is a ratio - can also be expressed as a percentage (x100)

The force producing stress and strain can be compressive or tensile but tensile forces should be considered as
positive and compressive forces as negative.

Breakingstress
As a greater and greater force is applied to a material, the stress on it increases
The effect of stress begins to pull the atoms apart and eventually, atoms separate to extent where the material breaks (B
on the graph)
The UTS is ultimate tensile stress and is the maximum stress the object can withstand (note that stress actually
decreases after this when strain increases)

Elasticstrainenergy
When a material is stretched, work has to be one in stretching the material. Before the elastic limit, all the work done in
stretching the material is stored as elastic strain energy (elastic potential energy)

Elastic potential energy is this area because work done over a

period of time is average force x distance
W ork done = 12 F L
E = 12 F L
Replace F with k L (hookes law)
E = 12 k (L) 2
If a material is stretched beyond its elastic limit then some of the
work will be done in moving the positions of the atoms and not all will be stored as elastic, therefore is not
available when the force is removed

Energy is always conserved when a material is stretched. If elastic, then the work done is all stored as elastic potential.
When the stretching force is removed, the energy is converted to other forms such as kinetic.
If the deformation is plastic then work is done in separating the atoms, mostly dissipated as heat.

With a suspended spring in an elastic stretch, when released, the elastic strain energy is converted to kinetic as spring
contracts and gravitational potential (gains height). The spring then begins to compress and kinetic transferred to
stored.

Overall, the energy changes in an oscillating spring can be summed up as:

Change in kinetic energy = change in potential energy (both elastic and gravitational)

The use of plastic deformation is most prominent in car design as crumple zones deform plastically so most of the energy
is transferred to heat rather than to elastic strain and back to kinetic, causing more force on passengers.

Theyoungsmodulus
When you apply a load to stretch a material, it experiences a strain proportional to the stress up to the limit of
proportionality. Because of this proportional relationship, the constant can be expressed as stress over strain -
Youngs Modulus.
 T ensile stress F /A FL
YM = T ensile Strain = E/L = EA
Extension and length are measured in metres, area in metres2 and force in N.
The units of Youngs modulus are Nm-2 the same as pascal's (Nm/m2m)

TheYoungsmodulusExperiment
Test wire should be thin and
as long as possible because the
longer and thinner it is, the more the
extension for the same force. This
therefore, reduces percentage
uncertainty in the measurements
Use a micrometer to
measure the diameter of the wire.
Do this several times as the wire will
not be perfectly circular
Clamp wire to the bench and then hand weights off one end. Start with a weight necessary to straighten the wire
Increase the weight and measure how much marker on the wire moves
Use results to calculate stress and strain at certain points and plot a graph of stress against strain

Because the Youngs modulus = stress over strain, the gradient of this graph gives the value of Youngs modulus
The greater the Youngs modulus, the bigger the stretch for a given force (less stiff)
E nergy per unit volume = 12 stress x strain
(same as elastic potential just has to be per unit volume) because E nergy = 12 L F

But x stress x strain =

E nergy = 12 L F L A

Therefore L x A must equal 1

more this to hold and length x
area = volume
Stress-strainforplasticdeformation

Plastic deformation is useful if you do not want a material to return to its original shape (drawing out copper
wires)

ForceExtensiongraphs
Force- extension graphs are similar to stress -strain however, they
depend on the object being tested and therefore its dimensions.
Stress- strain gives a general picture because it is independent of
dimensions.

For this metal wire, the wire has been stretched beyond its
elastic limit and therefore deforms plastically
When the force is unloaded, there is a permanent extension
on the wire
The gradient of the unloading is the same as loading because
stiffness constant is still the same (forces are still the same
as they were on loading)
Because the wire stretched beyond elastic limit, area between
the lines is the work done to permanently deform the wire
BrittleMaterials
The stress- strain graph for a brittle material does not curve.
Starts with a straight line through origin so brittle materials also obey Hookes Law
When reaches a certain point, the material snaps, it does not deform plastically

Not only brittle materials will fracture. Some materials will deform plastically
and then fracture.
Examples of brittle materials include glass, chocolate and ceramic

Brittle materials often have a crystalline arrangement of atoms or polycrystalline

(made up of many regions of crystalline structure).
When stress is applied, tiny cracks at materials surface get bigger and bigger until
material breaks completely.
This is known as brittle fracture and the material is able to do this because of
its rigid structure.

Other materials such as metals do not fracture this way because ions
are able to move and prevent these cracks getting bigger.