Hooke's law

American  

noun

Physics.

1. the law stating that the stress on a solid substance is directly proportional to the strain produced, provided the stress is less than the elastic limit of the substance.

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Hooke's law British  

/ hʊks /

noun

1. the principle that the stress imposed on a solid is directly proportional to the strain produced, within the elastic limit

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Hooke's law Scientific  

/ hks /

1. A law stating that the stress applied to a material is proportional to the strain on that material. For example, if a stress on a metal bar of ten newtons per square centimeter causes it to be compressed by four millimeters, then a stress of 20 newtons per square centimeter will cause the bar to be compressed by eight millimeters. Hooke's law generally holds only up to the elastic limit of stress for that material.

2. See also modulus of elasticity

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Etymology

Origin of Hooke's law

1850–55; named after R. Hooke who formulated it

Example Sentences

A three-judge Federal Circuit panel voted 2-1 to invalidate American Axle's patent after finding that it covered a simple application of Hooke's law, a physics principle.

From Reuters • Jun. 30, 2022

Modern researchers hung a 50-metre-long wire inside the tower to test how it deformed under torsion — an exception to Hooke’s law describing the elastic behaviour of idealized springs.

From Nature • Jan. 15, 2020

Figure 16.6 A graph of applied force versus distance for the deformation of a system that can be described by Hooke’s law is displayed.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

A common physics laboratory exercise is to measure restoring forces created by springs, determine if they follow Hooke’s law, and calculate their force constants if they do.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

The experimental fact that, for small changes of form, the extension of a rod or string is proportional to the tension to which it is exposed, is known as Hooke's law.

From Heroes of Science: Physicists by Garnett, William