What are the units used to measure pressure?

1 Answer
Oliver S.
Apr 23, 2018

Pascal, or #Pa#, (and a few others- but they are mostly derived from Pascals)

Explanation:

Pressure in Pascals is defined as the force exerted over an area in meters squared.

#P=(F)/A#

So in fundamental SI units 1 Pascal is:

#1 Pa= kg times m^(-1) times s^-2#

So 1 Pascal is the equivalent of a force of 1 Newton acting over an area of 1 meter squared.
However, 1 pascal is a pretty small pressure so we often describe pressure in bar, or atmospheres- which uses Kilo-pascals.

Normal pressure at sea level is approximately 101 kilo-Pascals, or 101 000 Pascal. This is often denoted as a pressure of "1 atmosphere". "1 Bar" on the other hand, is equal to 100 000 Pa.

However, there are many more units for measuring pressure- including psi (pressure per square-inch), mmHg... etc. But when doing physics or chemistry, #Pa# is the unit of pressure you should use.

Hope it helped!

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