(A. H. S.)
ELAND (= elk), the Dutch name for the largest of the South African antelopes (Taurotragus oryx), a species near akin to the kudu, but with horns present in both sexes, and their spiral much closer, being in fact screw-like instead of corkscrew-like. There is also a large dewlap, while old bulls have a thick forelock. In the typical southern form the body-colour is wholly pale fawn, but north of the Orange river the body is marked by narrow vertical white lines, this race being known as T. oryx livingstonei. In Senegambia the genus is represented by T. derbianus, a much larger animal, with a dark neck; while in the Bahr-el-Ghazal district there is a gigantic local race of this species (T. derbianus giganteus).
(R. L.*)
ELASTICITY. 1. Elasticity is the property of recovery of an original size or shape. A body of which the size, or shape, or both size and shape, have been altered by the application of forces may, and generally does, tend to return to its previous size and shape when the forces cease to act. Bodies which exhibit this tendency are said to be elastic (from Greek, ἐλαύνειν, to drive). All bodies are more or less elastic as regards size; and all solid bodies are more or less elastic as regards shape. For example: gas contained in a vessel, which is closed by a piston, can be compressed by additional pressure applied to the piston; but, when the additional pressure is removed, the gas expands and drives the piston outwards. For a second example: a steel bar hanging vertically, and loaded with one ton for each square inch of its sectional area, will have its length increased by about seven one-hundred-thousandths of itself, and its sectional area diminished by about half as much; and it will spring back to its original length and sectional area when the load is gradually removed. Such changes of size and shape in bodies subjected to forces, and the recovery of the original size and shape when the forces cease to act, become conspicuous when the bodies have the forms of thin wires or planks; and these properties of bodies in such forms are utilized in the construction of spring balances, carriage springs, buffers and so on.
It is a familiar fact that the hair-spring of a watch can be coiled and uncoiled millions of times a year for several years without losing its elasticity; yet the same spring can have its shape permanently altered by forces which are much greater than those to which it is subjected in the motion of the watch. The incompleteness of the recovery from the effects of great forces is as important a fact as the practical completeness of the recovery from the effects of comparatively small forces. The fact is referred to in the distinction between “perfect” and “imperfect” elasticity; and the limitation which must be imposed upon the forces in order that the elasticity may be perfect leads to the investigation of “limits of elasticity” (see §§ 31, 32 below). Steel pianoforte wire is perfectly elastic within rather wide limits, glass within rather narrow limits; building stone, cement and cast iron appear not to be perfectly elastic within any limits, however narrow. When the limits of elasticity are not exceeded no injury is done to a material or structure by the action of the forces. The strength or weakness of a material, and the safety or insecurity of a structure, are thus closely related to the elasticity of the material and to the change of size or shape of the structure when subjected to forces. The “science of elasticity” is occupied with the more abstract side of this relation, viz. with the effects that are produced in a body of definite size, shape and constitution by definite forces; the “science of the strength of materials” is occupied with the more concrete side, viz. with the application of the results obtained in the science of elasticity to practical questions of strength and safety (see [Strength of Materials]).
2. Stress.—Every body that we know anything about is always under the action of forces. Every body upon which we can experiment is subject to the force of gravity, and must, for the purpose of experiment, be supported by other forces. Such forces are usually applied by way of pressure upon a portion of the surface of the body; and such pressure is exerted by another body in contact with the first. The supported body exerts an equal and opposite pressure upon the supporting body across the portion of surface which is common to the two. The same thing is true of two portions of the same body. If, for example, we consider the two portions into which a body is divided by a (geometrical) horizontal plane, we conclude that the lower portion supports the upper portion by pressure across the plane, and the upper portion presses downwards upon the lower portion with an equal pressure. The pressure is still exerted when the plane is not horizontal, and its direction may be obliquely inclined to, or tangential to, the plane. A more precise meaning is given to “pressure” below. It is important to distinguish between the two classes of forces: forces such as the force of gravity, which act all through a body, and forces such as pressure applied over a surface. The former are named “body forces” or “volume forces,” and the latter “surface tractions.” The action between two portions of a body separated by a geometrical surface is of the nature of surface traction. Body forces are ultimately, when the volumes upon which they act are small enough, proportional to the volumes; surface tractions, on the other hand, are ultimately, when the surfaces across which they act are small enough, proportional to these surfaces. Surface tractions are always exerted by one body upon another, or by one part of a body upon another part, across a surface of contact; and a surface traction is always to be regarded as one aspect of a “stress,” that is to say of a pair of equal and opposite forces; for an equal traction is always exerted by the second body, or part, upon the first across the surface.
3. The proper method of estimating and specifying stress is a matter of importance, and its character is necessarily mathematical. The magnitudes of the surface tractions which compose a stress are estimated as so much force (in dynes or tons) per unit of area (per sq. cm. or per sq. in.). The traction across an assigned plane at an assigned point is measured by the mathematical limit of the fraction F/S, where F denotes the numerical measure of the force exerted across a small portion of the plane containing the point, and S denotes the numerical measure of the area of this portion, and the limit is taken by diminishing S indefinitely. The traction may act as “tension,” as it does in the case of a horizontal section of a bar supported at its upper end and hanging vertically, or as “pressure,” as it does in the case of a horizontal section of a block resting on a horizontal plane, or again it may act obliquely or even tangentially to the separating plane. Normal tractions are reckoned as positive when they are tensions, negative when they are pressures. Tangential tractions are often called “shears” (see § 7 below). Oblique tractions can always be resolved, by the vector law, into normal and tangential tractions. In a fluid at rest the traction across any plane at any point is normal to the plane, and acts as pressure. For the complete specification of the “state of stress” at any point of a body, we should require to know the normal and tangential components of the traction across every plane drawn through the point. Fortunately this requirement can be very much simplified (see §§ 6, 7 below).
4. In general let ν denote the direction of the normal drawn in a specified sense to a plane drawn through a point O of a body; and let Tν denote the traction exerted across the plane, at the point O, by the portion of the body towards which ν is drawn upon the remaining portion. Then Tν is a vector quantity, which has a definite magnitude (estimated as above by the limit of a fraction of the form F/S) and a definite direction. It can be specified completely by its components Xν, Yν, Zν, referred to fixed rectangular axes of x, y, z. When the direction of ν is that of the axis of x, in the positive sense, the components are denoted by Xx, Yx, Zx; and a similar notation is used when the direction of ν is that of y or z, the suffix x being replaced by y or z.