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Steel's Young's modulus is about 200 GPa. Aluminum's is about how much?

About 70 GPa, so steel is roughly three times stiffer.

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  1. About 200 GPa, the same as steel
  2. About 70 GPa ✔
  3. About 2 GPa

Why: Young's modulus measures stiffness: stress per unit strain. Under the same stress, an aluminum part stretches about three times as much as a steel part of the same shape.

Huh, didn't know that: Concrete is about 20 GPa and hardwood about 15 GPa in the same OpenStax table.

The dad joke
Aluminum asked steel why it was so stiff. Steel said, it's just how I was raised, about 200 gigapascals.
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References

Answer: About 70 GPa. Young's modulus measures stiffness: stress per unit strain. Under the same stress, an aluminum part stretches about three times as much as a steel part of the same shape.

  1. OpenStax University Physics Volume 1: 12.3 Stress, Strain, and Elastic Modulus (Table 12.1) openstax.org/books/university-physics-volume-1/pages/12-3-stress-strain-and-elastic-modulus
    Aluminum 7.0
    Checked 2026-10-11.

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