Believe it or not, I think I understand both your points. So if I put two pictures side my side, one picture showing a bar of steel breaking at 90 degrees and another bar of steel breaking at, say, 135 degrees, can I infer anything at all about which bar possesses more lateral strength if I don't know how much force was applied to either bar?
Yes, you can infer that one bar is more flexible. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
which would be toughness wouldn't it? because toughness is how much deformation something can take?
but i guess you couldn't tell much about strength.