RIGIDITY

In Mechanics, a resistance to change of form. In all theoretical investigations respecting the application Of forces through the intervention of machines, those machines are a umed (except cords) to be perfectly rigid, so far as the forces employed are able to affect their integltty of form and siriicmre. Rigidity is often, in the arts, called stiffne , and is opposed to flexibility. 1'h, rigidity of cords, or the difficulty with which they anbent into any given curve, is the chief cause of the lo of *power orisine from their employment in machines.1063 The [s. 1077]