Pressure

Introduction to Pressure

– It is defined as the force acting normally (perpendicularly) per unit area
– The SI units for pressure is newton per metre squared (N/m² or Nm^-2)
. – One Nm^-2 is known as one Pascal (Pa).

Formula for Pressure

– pressure is also measured in another unit called bar. 1 bar = 10⁵N/m², 1 millibar = 100N/m²

Examples: Calculating Pressure

A rectangular brick of weight 24 N, measures 60 cm × 20 cm × 30 cm. calculate the values of the maximum and minimum pressures which the block exert when resting on a horizontal table.
Solution
Area of the smallest face = 0.2 × 0.3 = 0.06 m²
Area of the largest face = 0.6 × 0.3 = 0.18 m²