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Can anyone explain the concept of a column of water to me?
I have been told to visualise 0.12 bar of pressure as a column of water 4ft high. But I can't find any information on the other dimensions of the column (other than height). I mean a column of water that is 3ft x 3ft x 4ft must surely exert more pressure than a column 1ft x 1ft x 4ft, simply because the volume is larger. Or am I not thinking about this the right way? Help...
1 Answer
- Born YesterdayLv 76 years agoFavorite Answer
Pressure is force per unit area: pounds per square inch (psi),
Newtons per meter² (Pascals) etc.
A water column 3ft×3ft×4ft is 36ft³/9ft² = 4 pressure units
A column 1ft×1ft×4ft is 4ft³/1ft² = 4 pressure units
Increasing column cross section increases distribution of force over
area.
Things get tricky if you consider a cone.
It doesn't matter if the cone is right or inverted.
A cone with a base area 50ft²
and a vertex of 1in² has the same pressure as a column the same height.
For practical purposes, the pressure in a fluid is a linear
function of depth only.
The column analogy is a calculation mnemonic.
Liquids distribute pressure equally in all directions.
A solid cone of the same dimensions would have all it's weight
concentrated over 1 in².
This is all counterintuitive and best grasped by experience.
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