At any point in a fluid, whether liquid or gas, there is a pressure.

If a body i s placed in a fluid, its surface is bombarded by a large number of molecules moving at rando m. Under normal conditions the collisions on a small area of surface are so frequen t that they cannot be distinguished as individual impacts but appear as a steady force on the area. The intensity of this molecular bombardment is its static pressure. Very frequently the static pressure is referred to simply as pressure. The term static is rather misleading as it does not imply that the fluid is at rest. For large bodies moving or at rest in the fluid (e.g., air), the pressure is not uniform over the surface, and this gives rise to aerodynamic or aerostatic force, respec tively. Since a pressure is force per unit area, it has the dimensions [Force][area] D [MLT??2][L2] D [ML??1T??2] and is expressed in units of Newtons per square meter or in Pascals (Nm??2 or Pa ). Pressure is also commonly specified in pounds per square inch (psi) or pounds pe r square foot (psf). It can also be of use to consider the above equation multipli ed by length over length: [Force] [Length]=.[Area] [Length]/ D [ML2T??2]=[L3] D [Energy]=[Volume] Thus, besides the most common view of it as a force per area, pressure also has units of energy per volume. Pressure in Fluid at Rest Consider a small cubic element containing fluid at rest in a larger bulk of flui d also at rest. The faces of the cube, assumed conceptually to be made of some thin fle xible material, are subject to continual bombardment by the molecules of the fluid and thus experience a force. The force on any face may be resolved into two components, o ne acting perpendicular to the face and the other along it (i.e., tangential to it) . Consider the tangential components only; there are three significantly different possible arrangements (Fig. 1.1). System (a) would cause the element to rotate, and thus the fluid would not be at rest; system (b) would cause the element to move (upward a nd to the right for the case shown), and, once again, the fluid would not be at res t. Since a fluid cannot resist shear stress but only rate of change in shear strain (Sect ions 1.3.6 and 2.7.2), system (c) would cause the element to distort, the degree of distort ion increasing with time, and the fluid would not remain at rest. The conclusion is that a fluid at rest cannot sustain tangential stresses. Pascal s Law Consider the right prism of length z in the direction into the page and cross-sec tion ABC, the angle ABC being a right angle (Fig. 1.2). The prism is constructed of m aterial of the same density as a bulk of fluid in which the prism floats at rest with th e

face BC horizontal.