Final answer:
The term 'flexibility' describes the ability of a material to bend without breaking and is related to the material's elasticity and tensile strength.
Step-by-step explanation:
The ability of a material to bend without breaking is referred to as its flexibility. This property indicates how easily a material can deform under stress without permanent damage. In physics, materials that can bend and return to their original shape display elastic behavior. Elasticity is a characteristic of materials to regain their original shape after deforming forces are removed. This behavior is related to the structure of the material at the microscopic level; for example, the elasticity of polymers is due to the stretching of polymer chains, while the elasticity of metals is associated with the movement of the crystalline cells within their lattices.
Tensile strength is another important concept in understanding material properties. It refers to the maximum amount of tensile stress that a material can withstand while being stretched or pulled before necking, which is when the specimen's cross-sectional area starts to significantly contract. If the stress applied on a material exceeds its tensile strength, it will result in permanent deformation or fracture. Materials that show significant flexibility before breaking can absorb a lot of energy, which is stored as elastic potential energy.
Thus, the correct answer to the student's question is 'b) flexibility' as it best describes the ability of a material to bend without breaking.