Shouldn’t be a strain to use the right word

In the Jan. 13-15 edition of USA Weekend, the article titled “Stress” by Sharon Jayson leads one to believe that stress and its companion word, strain, are some kind of mental condition found in human beings. In this connotation the words have no precise meaning, and commonly stress and strain are used interchangeably, as if they meant the same thing.

Stress and strain are two scientific words that have clear and distinct meanings. Stress is simply “load per unit area,” such as pounds per square inch; strain is simply “change of length per unit of length,” such as 1 inch per 100 feet.

In 1679, Robert Hooke published a scientific paper in Latin that said “ut tensio, sic vis” (as the extension, so the force). In other words, stress is proportional to strain, and vice versa. This is known as “Hooke’s Law” and is regarded as one of the pillars of engineering.

I suggest the medical profession use a different word to explain that mental condition. How about scrupulosity?

Jim Hahn

Arlington Heights