What is Pressure?
- Pressure is defined as force per unit area, and it is measured in Pascals.
- It represents the force exerted perpendicular to a surface.
- One pascal is equal to one Newton per meter squared.
- When a gas is in a container, it applies pressure onto the walls of the container.
- This pressure is based on how much volume the gas is given compared to how much volume the gas wants to take up.
- For example, take two masses of the same gas.
- One is put in a container of volume V and the other in container 0.5V.
- The gas in the smaller container will apply more pressure to the walls of the container.
Alternate Ways of Quantifying Pressure
- 1 Pascal is a very small amount of pressure, so sometimes different units are used to quantify pressure.
- Bars, atmospheres and PSI (pounds per square inch) are all used to measure pressure in different contexts.
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