5/25/2017 CalculusIIHydrostaticPressure

HydrostaticPressureandForce
Inthissectionwearegoingtosubmergeaverticalplateinwaterandwewanttoknowtheforcethatis
exertedontheplateduetothepressureofthewater.Thisforceisoftencalledthehydrostaticforce.

Therearetwobasicformulasthatwellbeusinghere.First,ifwearedmetersbelowthesurfacethenthe
hydrostaticpressureisgivenby,

where,isthedensityofthefluidandgisthegravitationalacceleration.Wearegoingtoassumethatthe
fluidinquestioniswaterandsincewearegoingtobeusingthemetricsystemthesequantitiesbecome,


Thesecondformulathatweneedisthefollowing.AssumethataconstantpressurePisactingonasurface
withareaA.Thenthehydrostaticforcethatactsontheareais,



Notethatwewontbeabletofindthehydrostaticforceonaverticalplateusingthisformulasincethe
pressurewillvarywithdepthandhencewillnotbeconstantasrequiredbythisformula.Wewillhowever
needthisforourwork.

Thebestwaytoseehowtheseproblemsworkistodoanexampleortwo.

Example1Determinethehydrostaticforceonthefollowingtriangular
platethatissubmergedinwaterasshown.

http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/CalcII/HydrostaticPressure.aspx 1/1