Guide Card, Part 4

The Pressure Calculation

There are many physical situations where pressure is the most important variable. If you are peeling an apple, then pressure is the key variable: if the knife is sharp, then the area of contact is small and you can peel with less force exerted on the blade. If you must get an injection, then pressure is the most important variable in getting the needle through your skin: it is better to have a sharp needle than a dull one since the smaller area of contact implies that less force is required to push the needle through the skin.

When you deal with the pressure of a liquid at rest, the medium is treated as a continuous distribution of matter. But when you deal with a gas pressure, it must be approached as an average pressure from molecular collisions with the walls.

Pressure in a fluid can be seen to be a measure of energy per unit volume by means of the definition of work. This energy is related to other forms of fluid energy by the Bernoulli equation.

 Source: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/press.html