Which property is directly related to a material's ability to withstand deformation?

The property that is directly related to a material's ability to withstand deformation is elasticity. Elasticity refers to the ability of a material to return to its original shape after being subjected to stress or deformation. When a material is elastic, it will deform under load but can recover its initial form once the load is removed, demonstrating its capacity to absorb and release energy without permanent deformation.

In practical applications, materials with high elasticity can endure significant amounts of stress without losing their structural integrity, allowing for flexibility and resilience. This is essential in many engineering designs, where materials must accommodate dynamic forces without failure.

While ductility, toughness, and hardness are also important mechanical properties, they relate to deformation in different ways. Ductility defines the extent to which a material can be stretched before breaking, toughness measures a material’s ability to absorb energy and plastically deform without fracturing, and hardness refers to a material's resistance to localized plastic deformation. Thus, elasticity specifically addresses the reversible deformation aspect of materials.