According to Hooke's law, any stress, as small as it may be will result in strain. Since stress is the internal force per unit area, it arises that any force, as small as it may be, will result in strain.
While I understand that sometime this strain, and thus the deformation, will be so small as to be imperceptible to the naked eye, i was wondering if there is a lower limit to the force that can cause a deformation in a material. Is there a force of some kind that needs to be overcome before there can be a deformation in a material?
