Biomedical Engineering: Bridging Medicine and Technology 1st Edition by Veronique Tran,Mark Saltzman

Exercise 2

Spider webs are made of silk. The biomechanics of the sticky capture spiral thread from an orb-weaving spider Araneus diadematus were investigated by K¨ohler and Vollrath. The table here shows the stress and strain values for the sticky silk thread.
a. Plot a stress versus strain curve for the data shown (note: 1 Pascal = 1N/m2).
b. Using the linear part of the curve, calculate the Young's modulus for the spider silk.
c. How does this value compare to that of bone (E = 3 MPa) or structural steel (E = 200 MPa)?
d. Based on your answer in (c), describe how the Young's modulus is a measure of the stiffness of a material.