Stress Formula

What is stress?

Stress is the restoring force per unit area of the material.

What are the units used to define stress?

The units used are,

• N/m²
• Pascal

What are types of stress?

The different types of stress are Tensile stress, Normal Stress, Tangential or Shearing Stress and Bulk stress

How is stress related to force and area?

Stress is directly proportional to the force exerted to the material, and inversely proportional to its cross-sectional area. In simple terms, increasing the applied force or decreasing the area causes higher stress levels.

What is the difference between stress and strain?

Stress measures the internal force per unit area exerted on a material, whereas strain measures the material’s deformation or shape change in reaction to stress. Strain is a dimensionless number that is often stated as a percentage or as the change in length divided by the original length.

Stress is a key term in physics and engineering that defines the internal forces per unit area of a material caused by external loads. Understanding stress is vital for developing and assessing buildings, materials, and mechanical systems in many domains. The symbol for stress is σ and it is measured in N/m². Learn more about Stress formula and examples based on them in this article.