the shear strain, and hence the shear stress, across the thickness of the plate is not neglected in this theory. however, the shear strain is constant across the thickness of the plate. this cannot be accurate since the shear stress is known to be parabolic even for simple plate geometries. to account for the inaccuracy in the shear strain, a shear correction factor (formula_16) is applied so that the correct amount of internal energy is predicted by the theory. then