Pressure increases with depth in a stationary fluid because of the fluid above.
Difficulty
Beginner
Read time
5 min
Prerequisites
Basic algebra and consistent SI units
Source
OpenStax, College Physics 2e, §11.4 (Paul Peter Urone and Roger Hinrichs)Textbook reference retained from the OpenFormulaGraph dataset; adaptation credits and license are provided below.
Adapted from OpenFormulaGraph, under CC BY 4.0.
FormuLab adapted the notation, explanations, assumptions, and topic placement, and expanded the numerical check into a worked example.
Pressure increases with depth in a stationary fluid because of the fluid above. Surface pressure must be included when finding absolute pressure. The increase ρgh alone is the pressure relative to the surface.
| Symbol | Meaning | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Pressure at depth h | ||
| Pressure at the surface | ||
| Fluid density | ||
| Gravitational acceleration | ||
| Depth below the surface |
Estimate static pressure below a liquid surface.
Find the pressure reference at installation depth.
Find the absolute pressure 2.00 m below a water surface at 101325 Pa. Use density 1000 kg/m³ and g = 9.80 m/s².
Textbook reference retained from the OpenFormulaGraph dataset; adaptation credits and license are provided below.
Adapted from OpenFormulaGraph, under CC BY 4.0.
FormuLab adapted the notation, explanations, assumptions, and topic placement, and expanded the numerical check into a worked example.
Assumptions
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