Finite strain

Ok, kiddo, let's learn about finite strain!

Imagine a piece of playdough. When you squish it with your hands and make it flat, that's called deformation. Finite strain is a way to measure how much the playdough has changed shape from its original form before you squished it.

Sometimes when you squish the playdough, it only changes a little bit and stays mostly the same. Other times, you squish it so much that it becomes a completely different shape than it started as. Finite strain helps us understand how much the playdough has changed shape in those different situations.

But how do we measure finite strain? Well, let's say we have two dots on the playdough, one next to the other. As we squish the playdough, those dots move farther apart. The amount they moved is called the strain, and we can calculate it by measuring the distance between the dots at the beginning and end and then dividing by the original distance.

So, finite strain is a way to measure how much something has changed shape from its original form. We use it to help understand how objects deform when we put pressure on them, like when we squish playdough or when buildings sway during an earthquake.