Hydrostatic Equilibrium and the

Homogeneous Atmosphere
Hydrostatic equilibrium
Basic ideas
The principle of hydrostatic equilibrium is that the pressure at any point in a fluid at
rest (whence, hydrostatic) is just due to the weight of the overlying fluid.
As pressure is just force per unit area, the pressure at the bottom of a fluid is just the
weight of a column of the fluid, one unit of area in cross-section.
This principle is simple to apply to incompressible fluids, such as most liquids (e.g.,
water). [Note that water and other common liquids are not strictly incompressible; but
very high pressures are required to change their densities appreciably.] If the fluid is
incompressible, so that the density is independent of the pressure, the weight of a
column of liquid is just proportional to the height of the liquid above the level where
the pressure is measured. In fact, the mass of a unit-area column of height h and
density is just h; and the weight of the column is its mass times the acceleration of
gravity, g. But the weight of the unit-area column is the force it exerts per unit area at
its base i.e., the pressure.