BRAINCAKEStrain Energy
When a material is stretched, the work done on it is stored as elastic strain energy. The strain energy is equal to the area under the force-extension graph.
For a material that obeys Hooke's law, the graph is a straight line through the origin, so the strain energy is E = ½FΔL, where F is the load and ΔL the extension. Since ΔL is proportional to F, the strain energy is proportional to F2.
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All 18 lessons in Materials · All AQA AS-level Physics topics