Pressure

 
Is pressure a scalar or a vector?

At KS3 and GCSE pressure is learnt as a force acting on a solid

surface.
This type of pressure is a vector (as it matters which way you push!).
BUT at A level you do not study that type of pressure - the type you
study is pressure in fluids (link at the bottom of the page) - in fluids
pressure acts equally in ALL directions - therefore it is a scalar
quantity... if they ask you whether pressure is a scalar or a vector -
answer scalar - because they are not thinking of the pushing on an
area of a solid!

Presure exerted on solids

When a force acts on a solid object it can make it accelerate if it can make it
change its state of motion.
However, sometimes a force acts on a solid object and that object cannot respond
by moving, instead the force creates pressure on that object. This can result in
the object being deformed in some way (having an indent appear on its surface or
being 'squashed'). Sometimes this is permanent, sometimes when the pressure is
removed the object returns to its original shape. For an object that is able to
recover its original shape, elastic
potential energy stored in the object when work is done on the object to change its
shape.It is then released when the object regains its shape.
So, we can think of pressure as being the result of a force acting on an object.
You cannot tell the pressure effect that a force will have simply by its size.
The contact area (only the area in contact! ... not the total surface area!) between
the force and the object is also important).
THE GENERAL EQUATION

This can be written as:

A toddler cannot hit very hard.... but give that

toddler a geological hammer (very unwise and
dangerous!!!) and a blow from a toddler could kill you!
The force would be small but the contact area would
be tiny (the point of the geological hammer)

Similarly, you wouldn't want to take a blow from a

karate expert..... but if that blow was delivered to a
large block of wood on your stomach the pressure
would be small because the contact area would be
great.
The block could be broken in two but the blow would
not hurt you at all.

UNITS

Pressure is usually expressed in how much force (in newtons) is applied to one
metre squared:

This unit can be expressed as a single word - the pascal (note the capital 'P' and
small case 'a').
In exams and tests you will sometimes find it expressed in how much force (in
newtons) is applied to one square centimetre:
 Work in whatever units you are given.... don't change from one to another unless
you are told to. However there is a relationship between the two units.
A square metre is ten thousand square centimetres, therefore the pressure in
pascal is always ten thousand times bigger than the pressure expressed in N/cm 2

Simple Machines

 
Machines use our physics discoveries to make work easy for us!
Work has two parts - the force applied and the distance it is applied over. By
making us apply a small force over a large distance a machine can make required
less effort (the force we put in).
We always put in more work than we get out of a machine - no machine is 100%
efficient but you would never know that when you see how easy they make a job!

DENSITY

• The density of an object or substance is its mass divided by its volume: 

mass kg g
• Density = volume ; SI unit of density m3
or c m3

• The denser a substance is, the heavier it feels for its size.

mass
Volume = density ; unit of Volume are cm3 or m3

Mass = Volume x density ; unit of mass are g or kg

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