When a body is subjected to a direct tensile stress ($${\sigma _{\text{x}}}$$) in one plane accompanied by a simple shear stress ($${\tau _{{\text{xy}}}}$$ ), the maximum shear stress is

Correct Answer: $$\frac{1}{2}\sqrt {\sigma _{\text{x}}^2 + 4\tau _{{\text{xy}}}^2} $$