Guide Card, Part 3

"Pressured" Units

Since 1 Pa is a small pressure unit, the unit hectoPascal (hPa) is widely used, especially in meteorology. The unit kiloPascal (kPa) is commonly used design of technical applications like HVAC systems, piping systems and similar.

• 1 hectoPascal = 100 Pascal = 1 millibar
• 1 kiloPascal = 1000 Pascal

Some Pressure Levels

• 10 Pa - the pressure below 1 mm of water
• 1 kPa - approximately the pressure exerted by a 10 g of mass on a 1 cm² area
• 10 kPa - the pressure below 1 m of water, or the drop in air pressure when moving from sea level to 1000 m elevation
• 10 MPa - nozzle pressure in a "high pressure" washer
• 10 GPa - pressure enough to form diamonds

Some Alternative Units of Pressure

• 1 bar - 100,000 Pa
• 1 millibar - 100 Pa
• 1 atmosphere - 101,325 Pa
• 1 mm Hg - 133 Pa
• 1 inch Hg - 3,386 Pa

A torr (torr) is named after Torricelli and is the pressure produced by a column of mercury 1 mm high - equals to 1 / 760^th of an atmosphere.

• 1 atm = 760 torr = 14.696 psi

Pounds per square inch (psi) was common in U.K. but has now been replaced in almost every country except in the U.S. by the SI units. Since atmospheric pressure is 14.696 psi - a column of air on a area of one square inch area from the Earth's surface to the space - weights 14.696 pounds.

The bar (bar) is common in the industry. One bar is 100,000 Pa, and for most practical purposes can be approximated to one atmosphere even if

1 Bar = 0.9869 atm

There are 1,000 millibar (mbar) in one bar, a unit common in meteorology.

1 millibar = 0.001 bar = 0.750 torr = 100 Pa

Source: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/pressure-d_587.html