Young's modulus, which is also known as the
elastic modulus, is a mechanical property of
linear elastic solid materials. It defines the relationship between stress (force per unit area) and strain (proportional deformation) in a material. Young's modulus is named after the 19th-century British scientist
Thomas Young. However, the concept was developed in 1727 by
Leonhard Euler, and the first experiments that used the concept of Young's modulus in its current form were performed by the Italian scientist
Giordano Riccati in 1782, pre-dating Young's work by 25 years. The term modulus is the
diminutive of the Latin term
modus which means
measure.