Rubber elasticity refers to the remarkable ability of rubber and rubber-like materials to stretch and return to their original shape after being deformed. It is a key characteristic of elastomers, which are a class of polymers. The underlying principle of rubber elasticity is based on the molecular structure of rubber, which consists of long, tangled chains of polymer molecules. When a force is applied, these chains are pulled apart, allowing the material to stretch.
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In a flexible crosslinked polymer network, deformation restricts the configurations of chain segments between cross-links. The resulting decrease of entropy produces a restoring entropic force. For an ideal affine Gaussian network, the shear modulus is , where is the number density of elastically active strands. A nearly incompressible isotropic rubber has Young's modulus . At fixed network density within the rubbery regime, both increase approximately linearly with absolute temperature. This statement does not describe crossing the glass transition or chemical degradation.