Does Tank Height Affect Water Pressure and Force?

[Idea04]

You have two closed water tanks. One tank is taller that allow pressure to build up from the shear weight of the fluid. And the other is a lot shorter that is pressurized. If the pressure on the bottom of the tall tank was 5 psi and the pressure in the small tank was 5 psi. Would they both exert the same force? Or would the small tank have a stronger force on account of the tank being lower volume and have a high pressure.

 

[Andrew Mason]

You have two closed water tanks. One tank is taller that allow pressure to build up from the shear weight of the fluid. And the other is a lot shorter that is pressurized. If the pressure on the bottom of the tall tank was 5 psi and the pressure in the small tank was 5 psi. Would they both exert the same force? Or would the small tank have a stronger force on account of the tank being lower volume and have a high pressure.

They would both exert the same pressure... so if you take a pipe and connect the two, no fluid would move between the two tanks. In other words, for a given element of fluid in the pipe of area A and thickness dx, the force would be PA - PA = 0, so it would not move.

AM