The resistance of a material to longitudinal pulling forces before it breaks is called?

Tensile strength is the term that describes the resistance of a material to longitudinal pulling forces before it breaks. It is a critical property in engineering and material science, as it indicates how much stretching or pulling a material can endure without failing. When a material is subjected to tension, tensile strength measures the amount of tensile (pulling) stress that can be applied before the material experiences fracture or permanent deformation.

Understanding tensile strength is essential in various applications, such as construction and manufacturing. For instance, materials with high tensile strength are favorable in situations where they need to bear significant loads or stresses without breaking.

While flexural strength refers to a material's ability to resist deformation under load (primarily bending), shear strength deals with the resistance of a material to sliding forces along a plane. Ductile strength is often associated with the ability of a material to undergo significant plastic deformation before rupture, which is related but distinct from tensile strength.