elasticity

Noun

elasticity (countable and uncountable, plural elasticities)

1. The property by virtue of which a material deformed under load can regain its original dimensions when unloaded
2. The sensitivity of changes in a quantity with respect to changes in another quantity.
   • If the sales of an item drop by 5% when the price increases by 10%, its price elasticity is −0.5.
   • Given elasticity of demand, there is a strong argument that filling the millions of empty seats through lower fares could actually increase revenue.2022 November 30, Anthony Lambert, “Rail fares fit for the 21st century”, in RAIL, number 971, page 43
3. A measure of the flexibility of a data store's data model and clustering capabilities.
4. A system's ability to adapt to changes in workload by automatically provisioning and de-provisioning resources.
5. The ratio of the relative change in a function's output with respect to the relative change in its input, for infinitesimal changes at a certain point.

   Synonyms:

   point elasticity

6. The quality of being elastic.
7. Adaptability.
   • Her elasticity allowed her to recover quickly.
   • "I'll have a try at it, Gladys, if you will only give me an idea what would please you." She laughed at the elasticity of my character.1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC