Enter the total force and the area that force is being applied to to calculate the total pressure on an object or system.
Pressure is a force applied to an object that is perpendicular to the surface of the object and distributed evenly across that area. The SI unit for pressure is Pascal (Pa). Sometimes units for pressure are derived from the force per unit area. For example, pounds per square inch (psi), or newton per square meter, (N/m^2). Pressure is also measured in atmospheres (atm), which is the pressure of the Earth’s atmosphere at sea level.
The formula for pressure is the following:
Pressure (P) = Force (F) / Area (A)
Pressure is also a measure of potential energy of a system. It’s a force acting over an area, so if that force is performed over some distance, the system has the ability to perform work on another object or system. Through equation manipulation, pressure can than be calculated by the following:
Pressure (P) = Work / Volume
Pressure is a scalar quantity even though it’s calculator through force which is a vector quantity. This is because the very definition of pressure states that it acts perpendicular to the surface. This means the force vector is always at 90 degrees to the surface and never changes direction.
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