From the previous lesson, Normal Strain, plotting the magnitude P of the load against the deformation δ, a certain load-deformation diagram can be obtained. Following are two general examples of a load-deformation diagram:
While this type of diagram contains information useful to the analysis of the rod under consideration, it can not be used directly to predict the deformation of a rod of the same material but of different dimensions. On the other hand, plotting stress versus strain results in a stress-strain diagram, which is characteristic of the properties of a material and does not depend upon the dimensions of the particular specimen used.
