What is modulus? How does one measure modulus? What does modulus mean?

Modulus has many meaning in the world of engineering. There is the modulus of rigidity, shear modulus, youngs modulus, section modulus, bulk modulus, etc. The most commonly used in the design and analysis of industrial equipment is modulus of elasticity.

Young's modulus (also known as modulus of elasticity) is the STRESS of a material divided by it's STRAIN. That is how much the material YIELDS for each pound of load put on it. Put another way, it is a measure of the STRENGTH of a material, and is commonly used to measure the strength of metals and other materials used in aircraft and weapons systems.

Modulus Definition

This Site Might Help You.

RE:

What is modulus? How does one measure modulus? What does modulus mean?

One measures tensile strength of a material. What is the difference between that and tensile modulus? One measures flexural strength. What is the difference between that and flexural modulus? Tell me the difference in measurements and physical significances.

Any modulus of a material is a measure of STIFFNESS (how difficult it is to deform it during its linear elastic behavior). Not stress or strength...stiffness. Young's modulus concerns uniaxial loading in either tension or compression. It is axial loading stress divided by axial strain by definition, presuming linear elastic loading regime. Stress is force per unit cross sectional area, axial strain is change in length divided by original length. "for example what would be the difference between a material that has a young's modulus of 5x10^5 and one that has 5x10^6" You forgot to include units. What you just said is meaningless. All I can conclude is that, assuming both are in the same set of units, the material of 10 times the Young's modulus is 10 times stiffer.

The guys did an ok job of answering the technicalities, but

I like old languages and you asked what modulus means.

I knew it was from the Greek so here is what I found.... :)

try this, they are both a test of strength, one is continuous, the other impact, both based scales on material. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young%27s_Modulus