In order to fully describe the complex bending behavior of the
spoon, Hooke’s law must be extended to three dimensions. In
this case both Young’s modulus and the shear modulus are required
in such a model due to the presence of shear, tensile, and
compressive motion in the system. Also, the structural characteristic
of the spoon (the shape of the shaft and cup) strongly
influence its behavior. Thus, while the given experiment produces
excellent results for the one-dimensional stiffness
constant, the finite element model incorporates all of these
properties in order to reproduce the overall behavior of the
spoon.