Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-b-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/paper-1/section-a/a5/solution

Apply equal compressive pressure in all directions; here denotes Poisson's ratio. The three principal normal stresses are . For an isotropic linearly elastic material, Hooke's law gives
and similarly for . At small strain, the fractional volume change is the sum of these normal strains:
The bulk modulus is , giving the isotropic elastic modulus relation,
The result assumes linear elasticity and fixed isotropic moduli. In the incompressible limit with finite Young's modulus, the bulk modulus tends to infinity.

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