From the experiment, we discovered that materials can be isotropic or anisotropic, and that the latter is not necessarily a bad thing, but that it can, in fact, be a useful design variable.

Just to summarize:

• Isotropic material: a material having identical properties in all directions
• Anisotropic material: a material with mechanical properties depending on the loading direction

Other terms you may come across when talking about material behavior under load:

• Quasi-isotropic material: an approximation of an isotropic material by placing multiple anisotropic layers in different directions
• Orthotropic material: a subset of anisotropic materials where the material properties differ in three mutually perpendicular directions