Definition:Pressure

Definition

Pressure is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed.

Pressure is a scalar quantity.

Dimension

The dimension of measurement of pressure is $\mathsf {M L}^{-1} \mathsf T^{-2}$.

This arises from the definition of force (of dimension $\mathsf {M L T}^{-2}$) divided by an area (of dimension $\mathsf M^2$).

Units

The units of measurement of pressure are as follows:

Pascal

The pascal is the SI unit of pressure.

It is defined as being:

The amount of pressure required to apply a force of $1$ newton over an area of $1$ square metre

Barye

Thus we see:

$1 \ \mathrm {Pa} = 10 \ \mathrm {Ba}$

Symbol

The usual symbol used to denote the pressure on a body is $p$.

Also see

• Results about pressure can be found here.

Sources

• 1989: Ephraim J. Borowski and Jonathan M. Borwein: Dictionary of Mathematics ... (previous) ... (next): pressure