Strength of Materials: Why Sausages Split Lengthwise
How solid things stretch, twist, bend and buckle, and why the answers often defy intuition.
Strength of Materials · 50 questions
Try 3 questions
1. Two rods of the same steel carry the same pulling load, but one has twice the diameter. How does its stress compare?
- The same as the thin rod's
- Half of the thin rod's
- A quarter of the thin rod's
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Answer: A quarter of the thin rod's
Stress is force over area, and doubling the diameter quadruples the cross-sectional area.
2. A steel bar is stretched within its elastic range and then released. What happens?
- It returns to its original length
- It ends up shorter than before
- It stays slightly longer for good
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Answer: It returns to its original length
Elastic strain is fully recoverable; permanent stretch only appears once the material yields.
3. When you pull on a bar and it gets longer, what happens to its width?
- It gets slightly wider
- It stays exactly the same
- It gets slightly narrower
Show the answer
Answer: It gets slightly narrower
Poisson's effect: axial stretching causes lateral contraction, about 0.3 times the axial strain for steel.
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