Static equilibrium and elasticity

We have used several times the law of statics when the particle or the body is not moving. Now I know it is possible that a particle or a rigid body may maintain its equilibrium and stays at rest even if there are several forces acting on it, of course until certain extent. For example, if we apply a pressure vertically on a book, in addition to its weight, lying on a table it will not move because the normal reaction of the table is equal in magnitude and opposing in direction according to Newtons third law, even if we slightly tilt the angle of force applied it main remain at rest where in this case the friction for is resisting the horizontal component of the force applied. This leads us to the fact if a particle or a rigid object stays at rest then the net external forces acting on it are equal to zero. The same story goes with torque applied on a rigid body, the particle or a rigid body stays at rest as long as the net external moments applied are equal to zero, for example if a platform is supported in a wall only from one end and there is a person standing on it at the edge, if the platform is well built and rigid enough it would stay in its position knowing that the moment caused by the persons weight times the arm of moment (length of the platform from the wall) is equal to the moment reaction from the wall which neutralizes the moment caused by the person. Now for different rigid bodies with different weights, I can imagine that even if there were no external forces acting on a particle or a rigid body, the equilibrium would be affected only by the affect of its own body weight. I have seen cool tricks done by utilizing pure physics and equilibrium, such as balancing a fork and a spoon on a toothpick from the edge of a glass. So, if there would be an unbalance that is a rigid body does not stays at rest because of its eccentric weight from the point of support, so it will cause its rotation. With different shapes of rigid bodies, the centre of gravity of a rigid body may be different from one another; it might even have a non-uniform density distribution that would change the location of center of gravity. If I go back to the example of the platform with a person standing on it, I have took it for granted that the platform is rigid and does not deform under the weight of the person standing on it. However, there are several possible scenarios to be considered. if we assume that platform maintains its connection to the wall, I can imagine that if the platform designed long enough with small thickness it might bend under its own weight where this bent might be permanent. Or it might withstand it on weight and an additional load with a slight bent and when the load is removed it will return to its original position. So there is the non-deformable region (elastic) and a deformable region where it starts to break under load from a certain point. It is more imaginable if we are dealing with a soft body like a rubber block; so if a pressure is applied to it we can see the deflected area. The area where the pressure is applied will suffer from stress and the effect of the pressure degrades gradually from that point depending on the material of the body. The more the pressure is concentrated more the stress is

developed in that small area. The stress is the pressure applied by a force on cross sectional area of a body, this stress will cause what is called strain. Strain is the degree of deformation of a rigid body. For sure, every material has different stress strain relations according to its physical properties and the Youngs module represent the relation of this curve. Depending on the direction of the applied force to the cross sectional area of the body, the physical resistance of a material would behave differently; if the force was applied in a normal way on the area causing its to elongate or being pressed in other words the force cause an elastic deformation. While if the force was parallel to area then it would shear the body causing a deformation in the cross sectional area parallel to the applied force.