Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Part 1: Linear Elastic Behavior
Explore materials from the atomic to the continuum level, and apply your learning to mechanics and engineering problems.
Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Part 1: Linear Elastic Behavior
Explore materials from the atomic to the continuum level, and apply your learning to mechanics and engineering problems.
All around us, engineers are creating materials whose properties are exactly tailored to their purpose. This course is the first of three in a series of mechanics courses from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. Taken together, these courses provide similar content to the MIT subject 3.032: Mechanical Behavior of Materials.
What you'll learn
- The behavior of linear elastic materials
- The atomic basis for linear elasticity
- How to solve mechanics problems relating to stress, strain, and strain energy
Prerequisites
- Classical mechanics (or statics)
- Chemistry at the first-year university level
- Differential equations
Meet your instructors
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Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, MacVicar Faculty Fellow -
Principal Lecturer and Digital Learning Scientist
Lorna Gibson
Lorna Gibson
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, MacVicar Faculty Fellow
Professor Lorna Gibson graduated in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto and obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. She was an Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia for two years before moving to MIT where she is currently the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. Her research interests focus on the mechanics of materials with a cellular structure such as engineering honeycombs and foams, natural materials such as wood, palm and bamboo and medical materials such as trabecular bone and tissue engineering scaffolds. She is the co-author of Cellular Solids: Structure and Properties (with MF Ashby) and of Cellular Materials in Nature and Medicine (with MF Ashby and BA Harley). Recent projects include aerogels for thermal insulation; nanofibrillar cellulose foams; and the mechanics of plant materials. At MIT, she has served as Chair of the Faculty and Associate Provost.
Jessica Sandland
Jessica Sandland
Principal Lecturer and Digital Learning Scientist
Jessica Sandland is a principal lecturer in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), where she leads online learning initiatives-- developing massive open online courses (MOOCs), collaborating with faculty, researching best practices in online learning, and designing blended learning experiences for the MIT community. She has overseen the development of a wide variety of DMSE’s online courses, including 3.086x (Innovation and Commercialization), 3.032x (Mechanical Behavior of Materials), 3.024x (Electronic, Optical, and Magnetic Properties of Materials), 3.15x (Electrical, Optical and Magnetic Materials and Devices), and 3.054x (Cellular Solids).
Jessica is one of the co-founders and leads of the MICRO program, whose mission is to provide a remote research and education experience for engineering undergraduates from disadvantaged backgrounds. She also serves as a senior member of Open Learning’s Digital Learning Laboratory. Her current research interests include the utility of peer review in open online courses and the use of humor in MOOCs, and she’s received awards for Best Paper in ‘20 and ‘22 for her contributions to the IEEE LWMOOCs Conference. Jessica also received the 2019 MITx Prize for Teaching and Learning in MOOCs and was a finalist for the 2019 edX prize. Jessica holds a Ph.D. in electronic materials from MIT.