Young's Modulus
Properties of Matter

Soft frogs

Stories from Physics for 11-14 14-16 IOP RESOURCES

 The tongues of frogs and toads are finely evolved to capture prey. A cane toad’s tongue can stretch by 180% during unravelling which helps the toad to pull it back as it recoils. Compared to the human tongue, which has a bulk Young’s modulus of around 300 kPa, frogs’ tongues are much softer — the tongue of the northern leopard frog has a Young’s modulus of only 4.2 kPa, so is over 70 times softer than a human tongue.

 

 

 

References

Young's Modulus
appears in the relation E=σ/ε
can be represented by Stress-Strain Graphs
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