• Pixel-art sticker of Shearon, personifying Shear Modulus, with the caption “Push My Top, I Lean.”

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Shearon

Shear Modulus Physics

\[G = \frac{F/A}{\Delta x / h}\]
$4.99 USD
$4.99 USD
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Meet Shearon, a rubber block glued to the floor who leans when you push his top sideways. Shear modulus is stress over strain. A 30 N push over 10 cm² on a 2 cm block of soft rubber gives a strain of 0.1, sliding the top 2 mm. Pixel-art kiss-cut sticker in 2, 3, 4 and 6 inches; equation, symbols and sources in the physics panel below.

Size
Surface

Flat $6 shipping worldwideMade to order, ships in 2–5 business days

Details

Size3″ × 3″

3″ × 3″ kiss-cut sticker.

Shipping

Flat $6 shipping on every order, worldwide, whatever's in it.

Delivery times & where we ship

Returns & replacements21 days

Every item is printed to order, so we can’t accept returns or exchanges for change of mind, or if you ordered the wrong size or colour.

Print defect, misprint, damage or the wrong item? We’ll send a free replacement, or a refund if you prefer. Report it within 21 days of delivery with a photo; no need to send it back.

Full refund & replacement policy

The physics

Meet Shearon, a rubber block glued to the floor who leans over when you push his top sideways.

Push sideways on the top of a block while its base stays put, and it leans into a slanted shape. This is shear. The stress is the force divided by the area of the top face. The strain is how far the top moves divided by the height of the block.

The shear modulus G is the stress divided by the strain. A large G means a material resists twisting and sliding. Steel has G ≈ 8 × 10¹⁰ Pa. Soft rubber has G of only about 3 × 10⁵ Pa.

Press a rubber block 2 cm tall with a sideways force of 30 N over an area of 10 cm². The stress is 3 × 10⁴ Pa, so the strain is 0.1 and the top slides over by 2 mm.

Liquids have no shear modulus, since they simply flow. Rubber shear pads under bridges and buildings let them shift gently during earthquakes and as they warm and cool.

Equations

\[G = \frac{F/A}{\Delta x / h}\]
SymbolMeaningUnit
\(G\) shear modulus \(\mathrm{Pa}\)
\(F\) sideways force \(\mathrm{N}\)
\(A\) area of top face \(\mathrm{m²}\)
\(\Delta x\) sideways displacement \(\mathrm{m}\)
\(h\) block height \(\mathrm{m}\)

Sources

  1. OpenStax University Physics Vol. 1 — Stress Strain and Elastic Modulus
  2. Wikipedia — Shear modulus

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