A tensile test pulls or stretches a sample and as a result the extensibility/elongation and tensile strength properties are measured in terms of force required to stretch and distance something can be stretched to.
The ultimate tensile strength of a material is defined as the maximum attainable load, acting on a specimen in a tensile test, divided by the original cross-sectional area of the specimen.
A conventional tensile test assumes that the sample fractures almost instantaneously in a plane that is approximately perpendicular to the plane of the applied tension. The maximum force is the tensile strength of the material.
