B Trying to understand hydrostatic pressure with different vessel widths

Click For Summary
Hydrostatic pressure remains consistent across vessels of different diameters, such as 1 meter and 1 centimeter, due to the principle that pressure is determined by the weight of the liquid column above, not the cross-sectional area. Even with extreme reductions in diameter, such as 1 millimeter or smaller, the pressure at a given depth remains the same. While the total weight of water in larger pipes increases, the pressure distribution does not change. At atomic scales, however, the behavior of pressure may differ due to specific atomic properties, complicating the analysis. Overall, for standard vessel sizes, hydrostatic pressure is uniform regardless of diameter.
abrek
Messages
14
Reaction score
1
TL;DR
hydraulic pressure at minimum pipe diameter
2024_08_24_0xi_Kleki.png


will the hydrostatic pressure be the same on the vessels shown with a different diameter of 1 meter and 1 centimeter? and will it be the same in both vessels if the first pipe has a diameter even less than 1 millimeter, 1 thousandth of a millimeter, 1 atom?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Yes. Same pressure. PSI = pounds per square inch. Regardless of the pipe diameter, you can think of the weight of a thin vertical column of liquid. If you double the cross sectional area of that column, you also double the weight, so the change cancels out.
 
When you get down to atomic distance scales these rules are likely to break down. But the answer will depend on a lot of specific things, like which sort of atoms, etc. There's no simple answer in the nanoscale cases.
 
  • Like
Likes Lord Jestocost, russ_watters, erobz and 1 other person
abrek said:
will the hydrostatic pressure be the same on the vessels shown with a different diameter of 1 meter and 1 centimeter?
As already covered by @DaveE the answer is yes. The weights of the two water pipes will be different (more water total means a heavier pipe+water combination), but the pressure distributions will be the same.
 
Thread 'Why higher speeds need more power if backward force is the same?'
Power = Force v Speed Power of my horse = 104kgx9.81m/s^2 x 0.732m/s = 1HP =746W Force/tension in rope stay the same if horse run at 0.73m/s or at 15m/s, so why then horse need to be more powerfull to pull at higher speed even if backward force at him(rope tension) stay the same? I understand that if I increase weight, it is hrader for horse to pull at higher speed because now is backward force increased, but don't understand why is harder to pull at higher speed if weight(backward force)...

Similar threads

Replies
6
Views
4K
Replies
5
Views
2K
  • · Replies 10 ·
Replies
10
Views
3K
Replies
26
Views
2K
  • · Replies 17 ·
Replies
17
Views
10K
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
4K
Replies
8
Views
2K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K
  • · Replies 40 ·
2
Replies
40
Views
4K
  • · Replies 8 ·
Replies
8
Views
7K