201: STATIC

PRESSURE
•Example: A drawing pin can be pushed into a piece of wood. However, your thumb cannot
be pushed into the wood when you applied the same force. WHY?
•Example: A sharp knife cuts with greater ease than a blunt knife. WHY?
•Reason: The point of the drawing pin and the sharp knife edge both have small areas. Force
acting on a small area exerts a large pressure.
•Pressure: The force acting per unit area.
Force F
Pr essure 
Area
p where p = pressure
A F = force in Newton (N)
A = area in square-metre (m2)

•S.I. Unit: Newton per square-metre (Nm-2) or pascal (Pa).

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Example 1: An elephant weighing 45 000 N stands on one foot of dimensions 30 cm x 30 cm.
What is the pressure exerted by the elephant?

Example 2: A girl weighing 500 N stands on one stilleto heel dimensions 1 cm x 1 cm. What is
the pressure exerted by the girl?

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Example 3: An average grown person weighs about 650 N (has a mass of 65 kg). A typical
area below one shoe would be about 170 cm2. Calculate the pressure on the ground.

Pressure in Liquids.
•A liquid exerts pressure because of its weight.
•The pressure inside a volume of liquid depends on the depth below the surface of the
liquid.
•The deeper the depth, the greater the weight of the overlaying liquid and the greater the
pressure.

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Water spurts out the furthest and fastest from outlet 3, the lowest tube. In turn, outlet 2
spurts water further and faster than outlet 1. This shows that liquid pressure increases with
depth.

•Consider a column of liquid of height, h, base area, A, which is filled with a liquid of density
.
The volume of liquid, V, in the container is given by:V  Ah
The mass of the liquid, m, is given by: m  V
The weight of the liquid column is given by: W  mg
W  Vg
W  Ahg

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The pressure, p, at the base of the liquid column is given by:

Pr essure 
Force Therefore, p  hg
Area
F
p
A
W
p
A
Ahg
p
A
Pressure due to column = Height of column x Density of liquid x Gravitational field strength
• From the equation above, the pressure in a liquid increases with the depth and density of
the liquid.
• It does not depend on the volume or cross-sectional area of the liquid.

Greater pressure at the bottom of a

deep narrow pond than at the
bottom of a shallow wide lake.

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• A liquid will always settle at a common level.
• If the height of water is different across the column, the pressure differences will cause
the height of each column to drop or rise until a common level is reached.
• At equilibrium, or at any point along the same vertical height, h, (e.g. points P, Q and R),
the pressure will be the same.

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Example 1: The water level in the water tank in the diagram below is 8 m above the tap.
What is the pressure that forces water out from the tap?
(Density of water = 1000 kgm-3 )

Example 2: The deep end of a swimming pool has a depth of 2 m. What is the pressure
exerted by the water on the bottom at this depth? The density of water is 1000 kgm-3.

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Example 3: A rectangular block with base area A of 25 cm2 is submerged in water of density
1000 kgm-3 as shown in the diagram.
a) Find the
i) pressure p1 due to the water acting on the top surface of the block.

ii) pressure p2 due to the water acting on the bottom surface of the block. (Take
gravitational field strength, g = 10 Nkg-1)

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b) Calculate the
i) force exerted by the water on the top surface of the block.

i) force exerted by the water on the bottom surface of the block.

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Atmosphere Pressure.
• The Earth is surrounded by a layer of air called the
atmosphere.
• This layer of air is a result of the Earth’s gravitational pull
on the air molecules near its surface.
• Air has weight and this weight (force) exerts a pressure on
the Earth’s surface.
• The pressure exerted by this layer of air at sea level is
1.03 x 105 Pa (1 atmosphere) and it is called the
atmospheric pressure.
• Thus, atmospheric pressure is defined as the
pressure in the surrounding air at the surface of
the Earth.
• Atmospheric pressure is measured by a
barometer.
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Gauge Pressure.
• It is the pressure difference between a system and the surrounding measured by a gauge,
which excludes the atmospheric pressure and this pressure is sometimes called
overpressure.
• Machines like air compressor, well pumps and tire
gauges will all use gauge pressure.
• Gauge pressure uses atmospheric pressure (14.7 psi),
as its zero point.
• Gauge pressure is also known as overpressure.
• Gauge pressure can be expressed as pg = ps - patm
where pg = gauge pressure
ps = system pressure
patm = atmospheric pressure
• When measuring the pressure of the air in a tire, the gauge is actually reading the
difference between the absolute pressure and the atmospheric pressure.
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• Example: If the gauge pressure measures 30 psi, and taking atmospheric pressure is
about 14.7 psi, the absolute pressure in the tire is actually 44.7 psi.
• If the tire is flat, then the gauge will read 0 psi. However, there is still some air present in
the tire and the pressure of this air is the same as the atmospheric pressure (about 14.7
psi).
Absolute Pressure.
• Absolute pressure is the sum of the gauge pressure and atmospheric pressure which is
about 14.7 pound per square inch (psi) at sea level.
• Absolute pressure is the pressure that would occur at absolute vacuum, or zero pounds
per square inch (psi).
• It is also referred to ‘total system pressure’.

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Instruments used to measure pressure.
U-Tube Manometer.
• It is a well known and very simple device used to measure pressure.
• A manometer is consisting of a U-shaped glass tube partly filled with a liquid (mercury or
water).
• U-tube manometer is usually used to measure the gas pressure (unknown).
• One end of the U-tube is exposed to the unknown pressure source P (closed reservoir)
and the other end is opened to the atmosphere, Pref.
• The unknown pressure can be calculated using the difference between the closed
reservoir and the air outside the manometer by measuring the
height difference between the liquid in the left and right parts of the
U-tube.
A – Gas
B – The fluid (water or mercury)
C - Atmosphere
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Instruments used to measure pressure.
Bourdon Gauge.
• It is a pressure indicator which has ‘C’ shaped tube, closed at one end.
• When the pressure inside the tube increases, the tube uncurls slightly, causing a small
movement at its closed end.
• A system of levers and gears magnifies this movement and turns a pointer, which
indicates the pressure on a circular scale.
• Bourdon gauges are usually fitted to cylinders of compressed gas used in industries and
hospitals.

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Instruments used to measure pressure.
Simple Mercury Barometer.
• A barometer is an instrument used for measuring atmospheric pressure.
• A simple mercury barometer is made up of a long narrow glass tube filled with mercury,
supported in a container of mercury.
• Atmospheric pressure is measured by observing the height of the column
of mercury in the tube.
• At sea level, air pressure will push on the mercury at the open end and
support a column of mercury about 30 inches high.
• If water is used instead of mercury, a glass tube of 30 feet in length will
be used.
• As atmospheric pressure increases, the mercury is forced from the reservoir by the
increasing air pressure and the column of mercury rises.
• When the atmospheric pressure decreases, the mercury flows back into the reservoir and
the column of mercury is lowered.
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Example 4: A U-tube with some mercury at the bottom is set up vertically and 12 cm 0f
water is added into one arm of the tube (Figure 6.22). Methylated spirit is then added
carefully into the other arm of the U-tube until the mercury levels are the same in both
arms. It is observed that the level of methylated spirit is higher. What is the density of
methylated spirit if the methylated spirit column is 15 cm high? (Density of water = 1000
kgm-3)

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