Pressure

Pressure is the force applied to a specific area. It shows how spread out or concentrated a force is.

Press a lump of clay with your hand. The force is applied over a large area, so the clay barely changes shape.

Now, apply the same force to the clay with one finger. Here, the same force is concentrated in a smaller area, making a deeper dent.

That means that the smaller the area to which force is applied, the greater the pressure.

We calculate pressure as force divided by area. Force is measured in newtons, and the area in square meters gives us newton per square meter, the SI unit of pressure.

This unit is also called the pascal, where 1 pascal equals 1 newton per square meter.

Now, let’s calculate the pressure of a rock weighing 2500 newtons resting on the ground on an area of 0.2 m².

By applying these values to the formula, we find the pressure applied by the rock is equal to 12,500 newtons per square meter or 12,500 pascals.