Elastic and Plastic Bodies

A body which regains its original state completely on removal of the deforming force is called perfectly elastic. On the other hand, if it completely retains its modified form even on removing the deforming force, i.e. shows no tendency to recover the deformation, it is said to be perfectly plastic.

However, in practice the behaviour of all bodies is in between these two limits. There exists no perfectly elastic or perfectly plastic body in nature. The nearest approach to a perfectly elastic body is quartz fiber and to the perfectly plastic is ordinary putty.