What material property is typically measured to determine toughness?

Toughness is a material property that quantifies a material's ability to absorb energy and plastically deform without fracture. It specifically refers to the total amount of energy a material can withstand before it ultimately fails. This property is crucial in identifying how materials perform under stress, especially in applications where shock loading or impact is a factor, like in construction and manufacturing.

Measuring the energy absorbed before fracture provides a direct indication of toughness since it encompasses both the material's strength and ductility. When a material is subjected to stress, toughness is indicative of how much energy can be stored until it reaches its breaking point. Thus, energy absorbed before fracture is the right measure in understanding and evaluating how tough a material is.

Other properties like elasticity, hardness, and yield strength address different characteristics of materials. Elasticity looks at how a material can return to its original shape after deformation, hardness measures resistance to deformation or scratching, and yield strength signifies the maximum stress that a material can withstand without permanent deformation. None of these properties directly relate to the energy a material can absorb prior to failure, which is why they do not measure toughness.