Unit 4 Pressure

Pressure depends on two things:

the Force (in Newtons) and
the Area it's pressing on (in square metres)

Pressure =

Force

Force
Area

Pressure x area

Pressure = Force Area

Pressure is measured in Pascals (Pa for short),

We work it out using:

1 Pascal means 1 Newton per square metre

Named after Blaise Pascal (1623- 1662), a French mathematician and phy sicist

Pressure in Liquids
Squeezing the top of a plastic bag with holes in
it causes the water to squirt out from all holes
Pressure acts equally in all directions
at a given depth.
If a can has holes at different levels, water
squirts out fastest from the bottom hole.
From above we can see that the
pressure in a liquid or gas, increases
with depth. Also the pressure depends
on the density of the fluid, the larger the density, the larger the
pressure.

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We can find the pressure due to a fluid using the relation

Pressure = depth x density x gravity
or in short as
Pressure = h g
where h is the height (depth) and is measured in meters.
is the density and is measured in kg/m 3.
g is the gravity and is measured in N/kg.
Fluid pressure on a surface is due to the force acting on a unit area by
the molecules of the fluid (liquid or gas) continuously hitting the surface.

The pressure does not depend on the shape of the

container. The pressure at the bottom of each vessel is the
same even though the shape of the vessels is not the same.
Pressure in liquids, at the same level, is the same in all
directions.
The pressure done by a liquid increases if the density of the
liquid increases. Mercury whose density is 13600 kg /m3 does
more pressure than water which has a density of 1000 kg/m3.
liquid pressure depends on the density of the liquid and the
height of the liquid.

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Using Pressure
1. Why do heavy loaded trucks have double wheels at
the back?
As the force done at the back of the truck is larger the double
wheels produce a large area and so the force spreads and
produces less pressure on the ground.
2.

Why do narrow stringed baskets hurt your hand?

The weight of the load in the basket pulling down will hurt your
hand as it acts over a small area. This produces a large
pressure that hurts your hand.
3.

Why do football players wear slippers with studs?

The studs produce a very small contact area with the ground
producing a high pressure which increases the grip with the
grass, avoiding slipping.
4.

Why a sharp knife is good at cutting things?

When the area is small, a moderate force can create a

very large pressure. When you push the very small area of
the sharp blade against something, it creates a really large
pressure.
5.

Why do ice skates have sharp edges?

Sharp edges create a small area in contact with the ice, this
creates a very large pressure on the ice. Ice has an unusual
property: it can melt under pressure, even if it's below 0C.
When you're ice skating, you're actually skating on a layer of
water that you've just melted, which quickly re-freezes when
you move on .This means that there's very little friction as
you skate along.

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6. How can a thin supermodel damage wooden

parquet?
Even a slender supermodel can damage floors by walking on
then in high-heeled shoes. This is because the area of the heel
is small, so you can easily create enough pressure to cause a
dent in the floor. The pressure can be greater than if an
elephant was standing there, even though the force is much
less. So you should be able to figure out why elephants and
camels have large feet.
7. Why do you feel ears hurting when you dive deep in
the sea?
As you dive deeper into a liquid, the pressure of the liquid
increases. We need to remember this when designing the
walls of pools and dams: the wall must be thicker at the
bottom, to withstand the increased pressure down there.
8. Why do divers resurface gradually when deep
diving?
Divers which go at a very high depth down under the surface of
the water may suffer from pains called
BENDS, if they quickly rise to the surface. The reason is that
in going up quickly, there is a rapid lowering of water pressure
on the body which will form nitrogen gas bubbles in the veins.
These gas bubbles, as the diver goes up increase in volume,
causing a lot of pain in the veins which may actually start
bursting, leading to death.

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Hydraulic machine
We can use pressure in
liquids to move a piston
and do useful work. This
is how the hydraulic systems in diggers, car brakes and
fairground rides work: a pump creates pressure in an
incompressible liquid, which acts on a piston. By adjusting
the area of the piston, we can adjust the force we get.
To understand how hydraulic machines work, it is important to
keep in mind these two things:
1. Liquids are almost incompressible.
2. Pressure is transmitted through the liquid.
Due to the liquid particles being quite
closely spaced, when applying a force
on a liquid, the liquid will not
compress (it will not decrease in
volume). The force applied will be
transferred from one place to
another. This means that pressure is
transferred in all directions in a liquid
equally.
A very important application which works on this fact is the
hydraulic machine. Examples where hydraulic machine is
used are the dentists chair, a hairdressers chair, hydraulic
jack to lift car and hydraulic brakes.
The simplest hydraulic machine is made up of:
A small area movable piston onto which you will do the
force.
A large area piston from which the heavy load will be
lifted.
A connecting pipe between them filled with a liquid
(generally oil).
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Hydraulic Press
A multiplication of force can be achieved by the application of fluid
pressure according to Pascal's principle, which for the two pistons
implies

P1 = P2
This allows the lifting of a heavy load with a small force, as in
an auto hydraulic lift, but of course there can be no
multiplication of work, so in an ideal case with no frictional
loss:
Winput = Woutput

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Automobile Hydraulic Lift

A hydraulic lift for automobiles is an example of a force
multiplied by hydraulic press, based on Pascal's principle.
The fluid in the small cylinder must be moved much further
than the distance the car is lifted.

For example, if the lift cylinder were 25 cm in diameter and the

small cylinder were 1.25 cm in diameter, then the ratio of the
areas is 400, so the hydraulic press arrangement gives a
multiplication of 400 times the force.

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Atmospheric Pressure

Air in the atmosphere above is exerting a pressure on us.

The atmospheric pressure at sea level is 101,000 Pa.
A person on a mountain has a small column of air above him
such that he feels a smaller pressure. On the other hand a
person at sea level will feel a larger pressure.
The atmospheric pressure varies with height. Just outside
the earths atmosphere the atmospheric pressure will be
zero.
The pressure of the atmosphere on you right now is around
101,000 Pa. OK, that's just a number, so think of it this way:
- you probably have a skin area of around 2 square metres,
- Pressure = force area, so force = pressure x area
thus the force on you = 100,000 x 2 = 200,000 Newtons.
That's about the same force as having over a dozen cars
piled on top of you! Why are you not feeling this force?

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Otto von Guericke, (1602-1686), a

German physicist, born in Magdeburg,
performed a famous experiment: the
"Magdeburg Hemispheres".
These were two halves of a large,
hollow metal ball. When all the air was
sucked out of the ball, two teams of
eight horses couldn't pull them apart,
because the pressure of the Earth's atmosphere created a very
large force on the ball.
Manometer is the instrument for measuring pressure in terms
of the difference in fluid levels between the vertical arms of a
glass U-tube.
Barometer is the instrument used to
measure atmospheric pressure.
The average atmospheric pressure at
sea level corresponds to 760 mm Hg
(which is the vertical height of mercury
in a barometer) or 10.336 m of vertical
height of a water column. To correctly
measure the atmospheric pressure, the
space above the mercury level in a
barometer is essentially vacuum.

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Four States of Matter - Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma

Everything around us is made up of atoms.

Matter is defined as any material that has mass and occupies

volume.
A Solid has a rigid shape and constant volume . The forces
between molecules far outweigh the heat energy held by the
molecules, and so the molecules form a rigid structure (in
which they vibrate).
A Liquid has a constant volume but takes on the shape of its
container. The heat energy possessed by the molecules is more
significant, but still not enough to allow them to completely
overcome the forces between them. As a result, the molecules
are free to move within the liquid, but only exceptionally fast
molecules can escape it.
A Gas fills any container it is placed in (no constant volume or
shape) . The heat energy between the molecules is greater
than the forces between the molecules, and so they move
randomly.
A Plasma forms when a gas is heated enough, then the
molecules lose their electrons, and the ions and atoms form
something similar to a gas, with random particle movement.
Most of the matter in the universe is plasma (thats what you
make stars from) but most of the matter on earth is
solid/liquid/gas.
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Pressure in gases
Gases create a pressure on their containers, because of the gas
molecules colliding with the walls.
Increase in temperature = increase in pressure (volume
constant)
As a gas is heated its molecules gain kinetic energy, so they
increase in velocity and start hitting each other and the walls of
their container more frequently. This gives rise to an increase
in Pressure.
Decrease in volume = increase in pressure (
temperature constant)
When the volume of a fixed mass of gas is decreased the
distance between the molecules of a gas and their container
decrease as well. Hence the rate of collision increases and so
does the pressure.
Pressure and the Weather
Regions where atmospheric pressure is lower then average are
called Cyclones while regions where atmospheric pressure are
higher then average are called anticyclones. In these
anticyclones, winds circulate round the high pressure centre ,
spiralling outwards.
A decrease in pressure usually results in bad weather as winds
start blowing which move rain clouds.
Practical Effects of Pressure:
RUBBER SUCKERS.

When the sucker is pressed

into place, the air inside is
forced out.The sucker is held
in position by the high
atmospheric pressure on the
outside surface.
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THE COLLAPSING CAN.

When the air inside the can is cooled,

its pressure decreases. The high
atmospheric pressure outside exerts a
great force on the can and causes it
crashes.

SCUBA DIVING

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When the brake pedal is pressed, the piston of the master cylinder
applies a pressure on the brake fluid.This pressure is
transmitted uniformly to each cylinders at the wheel, cause the
pistons at the wheels to push the brake shoes to press against the
surface of the brake. The friction between the brakes and brake
shoes causes the vehicle to slow down and stop

Drinking straw: When you pull up water the pressure in the

straw will be reduced and the atmospheric pressure on the
water will be greater, pushing up the liquid.
Water bottle experiment: When a bottle is completely filled
with water and then put upside down in a container with water,
the water will not flow. This is because pressure of water inside
is equal to atmospheric pressure on the surface of the water.

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