Specific strength, also known as strength-to-weight ratio, is a material property that describes how much strength a material has relative to its weight. It is typically expressed as the ratio of a material's yield strength (or ultimate tensile strength) to its density.
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Specific strength is strength divided by density, with the strength convention stated explicitly. For a uniform tie carrying tensile force , allowable stress requires area . Its mass is therefore at least . Maximizing minimizes mass under this simple strength-limited model. A material with higher strength can still be worse if its density increases more. Mechanical fatigue, buckling, joining and temperature limits can impose additional constraints not captured by this single ratio.