The property of the body because of which they are able to come back to their original status after removing the external force applied is called elasticity.
In a solid, each atom or molecules surrounded by neighboring atoms or molecules. These are bonded together by inter atomic or intermolecular forces and stay in a stable equilibrium position. When a solid is deformed, the atoms or molecules are displaced from their equilibrium positions causing a change in the inter atomic (or intermolecular) distances.
When the deforming force is removed, the inter atomic forces tend to drive them back to their original positions. Thus the body regains its original shape and size. The restoring mechanism can be visualized by taking a model of spring-ball system shown in the Figure below. Here the balls represent atoms and springs represent inter atomic forces.
If you try to displace any ball from its equilibrium position, the spring system tries to restore the ball back to its original position. Thus elastic behavior of solids can be explained in terms of microscopic nature of the solid. Robert Hooke, an English physicist performed experiments on springs and found that the elongation produced in a body is proportional to the applied force or load .Related posts :
Weightlessness
Gravitational Potential Energy
Universal Gravitational constant
Kepler laws of gravitation
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