Water Pressure

Water Pressure
When you turn on a tap, water comes out under pressure. What causes water pressure? In this section, the
factors involved are examined.

Figure 11 Figure 12

Pressure Depends on the Depth of the Water

Consider the solid cube of metal in Figure 11. The density of the metal is such that the force of gravity on the
1 cm3 of metal is 0.1 N. The surface area upon which the cube rests has an area of 1 cm2. Since Pressure =
Force
, the pressure the cube exerts on the surface is 0.1 N/cm2.
Area

In Figure 12, a second identical metal cube is stacked on top of the first cube. The force of gravity on
the two cubes is 0.2 N. The pressure on the 1 cm2 surface below the cubes is therefore 0.2 N/cm2.

If we stacked a third cube on top of the first two, the height of the stack would be three times as great,
therefore the force of gravity on the metal blocks would be three times as great, and the pressure would also be
three times as great. You can see that the pressure exerted at the bottom of the stack depends on the height of
the stack.

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 Water Pressure

In Figure 13, there are six of these blocks stacked,

with three blocks sitting next to another three identical blocks.
What is the pressure exerted by these blocks?
Keep in mind that pressure is force divided by area!
Consider the three blocks on the left of the diagram. The force
of gravity on these blocks is 0.3 N. This force is exerted on a
surface area of 1 cm2. Therefore, the pressure exerted by these
three blocks is 0.3 N/cm2.
You can see that the pressure exerted by the blocks
depends on the height of the blocks, but changing the total
width of the blocks does not change the pressure! The force of
gravity is doubled if a second column of blocks is placed
beside the first. However, the surface area upon which the
blocks rest is also doubled!
Force
Since Pressure = , if both force and area are doubled,
Area
the ratio will remain the same.
2 x Force Force
= .
Figure 13 2 x Area Area

A similar argument can be applied to liquids in

containers. In Figure 14(a), the bottom of the container
has an area of 1 cm2. The height of the column of water
is such that the force of gravity on the water in the
column is 0.1 N. The pressure exerted by the water on
the 1 cm2 surface at the bottom is 0.1 N/cm2.
If the height of the water column is doubled, the
force of gravity on the column will be doubled, and so
will the pressure, since the area at the bottom is still
1 cm2.
What if a wider container were used? In Figure
14(b), the height of the container is the same as in
Area 1 cm2 Area 10 cm2 Figure 14(a), but the area of the bottom is 10 cm2. If
you think of the water in this container as being
Figure 14 equivalent to ten columns of water, each with an area at
the bottom of 1 cm2, it is obvious that the force of
gravity on the water in the container is 10 times as great
as the force of gravity on the water in the narrow
container.

If the force of gravity on the water is 10 times as great, and the area is also 10 times as great, then what will the
pressure be?
10 x Force Force
= .
10 x Area Area

The pressure exerted by water in a container does not depend on the width of the container. It depends only on
the height (or depth, if you are measuring from the top of the water down) of the water in the container.

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 Water Pressure

Investigation 4 Water Pressure Experiments

Purpose: To experiment with water pressure.

Figure 15
Procedure

Part A

Plastic pop bottles can be used to make apparatus to investigate water pressure in containers of water. Figure 15
shows three sizes of plastic bottle: 1 L, 2 L and 4 L.
One hole, approximately 5 mm in diameter, has been drilled through the side of each bottle, at a height
of 5 cm from the bottom.

Note: One way to drill the holes precisely is to fill the bottles with water, freeze the water by placing the
bottle in a freezer, then drill into the ice-filled bottle. Use the same diameter drill for all three bottles.

1. Using a felt pen, draw a line circling the bottle at the height of the hole (5 cm from the bottom of the bottle)
and another line circling the bottle at a height of 20 cm from the bottom of the bottle.

2. Place a piece of masking tape over the holes in each bottle. Leave a loose tab so that you can use it to pull off
the tape quickly when you want to let water run out of the hole.

3. Predict what will happen in this situation: All three bottles are filled with water to the same height (20 cm).
The tape is pulled off the bottles, and the water is allowed to stream out of the holes. Out of which bottle will
the water travel furthest horizontally?

4. Try the experiment and test whether your prediction was correct. It will require some teamwork to do this
experiment so that the water is released from all three bottles simultaneously.

Suggestion! Do this experiment outdoors on a paved area where there is no traffic.

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 Water Pressure
Part B

Figure 16

1. In Figure 16, a 2 L plastic pop bottle has a number of equally spaced 5 mm diameter holes drilled around its
perimeter, 5 cm from the bottle of the bottle. Place tape over the holes and fill the bottle with water. [Or,
place the bottle inside a large bucket, and fill both the bottle and the bucket with water. Pull the bottle out of
the bucket when you are ready.]

2. Predict what will happen when the water is allowed to stream out of all the holes.

3. Test your prediction.

Part C

Figure 17

1. In Figure 17, three 5 mm diameter holes have been drilled in the side of a 2 L plastic bottle. The first hole is
5 cm above the bottom of the bottle, the second hole is 10 cm above the bottom of the bottle, and the third
hole is 15 cm above the bottom of the bottle. The three holes are drilled along the same vertical line. A single
strip of masking tape is placed over all three holes, leaving a tab so that the tape can be pulled off quickly.

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 Water Pressure
2. Fill the bottle with water to a height of 20 cm above the bottom of the bottle. Call this height H. If you do
this, then the holes are located at heights of 1/4 H, 1/2 H and 3/4 H precisely.
3. Place the bottle on a large, flat pan (such as an aluminum oven pan) into which the water can flow and be
collected without spillage. (You might also do this outdoors on a flat surface.)
4. Predict what will happen when the tape is pulled off the holes, and the water is allowed to stream out of the
three holes. Out of which hole will the water stream furthest?
(a) the hole at 1/4 H? (b) the hole at 1/2 H? or (c) the hole at 3/4 H? Give a reason for your prediction!
5. Test your prediction!

Part D (Demonstration)

1. Fit a flat glass plate over the end of a glass cylinder. (The
glass cylinder used in a convection box should do.) Push
the cylinder, with the glass plate below it as in Figure 18,
straight down into the water in a large container (such as
an aquarium).

What happens to the glass plate? What is keeping it there?

2. From a second container, pour coloured water slowly into

the cylinder, until the glass plate is no longer supported.
Note how deep the water is inside the cylinder when the
flat plate finally falls away from the cylinder.

Figure 18

Concluding Questions

1. In Part A, bottles of different volumes, filled to the same height with water, had holes drilled the same
distance below the top level of the water in the bottles. What happened when the water was allowed to
stream out of the three holes?
2. What single factor has the greatest effect on the amount of pressure in a body of water?
3. In Part B, what did the results suggest about the effect of direction on water pressure at a given depth?
4. In Part B, what happened to the horizontal distance travelled by the streams of escaping water, as the level
of water in the bottle dropped?
5. In Part C, out of which hole did the water travel furthest in a horizontal direction?
6. You may have been surprised by the result of Part C. Most people are, because it is obvious that water
pressure is greatest at the lowest hole (1/4 H). What is the ‘forgotten factor’ that causes the result you
observed?
7. In Part D, under what condition did the flat glass plate finally fall off the bottom of the cylinder?
8. What do the results of Part D suggest about the relationship between (a) the upward pressure exerted on the
glass plate by the water in the large container and (b) the downward pressure exerted by the water inside the
cylinder?
9. Write a brief summary of what you have learned about water pressure in this Investigation.

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 Water Pressure
Extension: The Manometer
A manometer is a device used to measure changes
in pressure in fluids. It is a U-shaped glass tube,
partially filled with a liquid such as mercury. You
can make a manometer using thick, clear plastic
tubing instead of glass. For safety reasons, use
coloured water instead of mercury. Figure 19
illustrates a manometer that uses coloured water.

1. Add coloured water to the U-shaped glass or

plastic tube of the manometer until the sides of
the U-tube are about half full. Tie a piece of
balloon rubber over the end of a small, short-
stemmed funnel or thistle tube. Use a 50 cm
length of rubber tubing to attach the funnel to
the U-tube, as in Figure 19.

Figure 19

2. The funnel with the balloon rubber covering will serve as a ‘pressure sensor’. Push gently on the pressure sensor with
your finger, and observe how the water in the U-tube responds to the pressure change.

3. Place a centimetre ruler inside a large container of water, such as an aquarium. Insert the pressure sensor face down in
the water. Gradually increase the depth to which the pressure sensor is pushed. Note how the water in the U-tube
responds when you increase the depth of the sensor in water.

4. Design a scale for your manometer, so that the scale reads the water pressure in centimetres of water.

5. Experiment until you can write answers to the following questions:

(a) What happens to the pressure in water as depth increases?
(b) At a given depth of water, does water pressure depend on the direction in which the sensor
is pointed? In other words, how does the downward pressure compare with
(i) upward pressure? and (ii) sideward pressure?

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 Water Pressure
Calculating Water Pressure
Water has a density of 1 000 kg/m3. This means that one cubic metre (1 m3) of water has a mass of 1 000 kg.
The force of gravity on a 1 kg mass is 9.8 N. The force of gravity on 1 000 kg must be 1 000 kg x 9.8 N/kg = 9
800 N.

In Figure 20, a ‘cube’ of water has

dimensions 1 m x 1 m x 1 m. At a depth of 1 m in the
water, the mass resting on a 1 m2 base would be
1 000 kg, since there is 1 m3 of water above the 1 m2
base.
The force of gravity acting on this 1 m3 of
water is 9 800 N, so the force acting down on the 1 m2
base would be 9 800 N. Since the force acting on a
unit of area is pressure, the pressure at a depth of 1 m
is therefore 9 800 N/m2, or 9 800 Pa.
Since 1 000 Pa is 1 kilopascal, the water
pressure at a depth of 1 m is 9.8 kPa.
Figure 20

How do you calculate the pressure in water at any depth?

Example
What is the water pressure at a depth of 2 m? 3 m? ‘h’ m?

Answer: Imagine a column of water 2.0 m high, with a base of 1 m2. There is twice as much mass of water
above the base, so the force of gravity will also be twice as great.
The mass of water is now 2000 kg, and the force of gravity is 2000 kg x 9.8 N/kg, or
19 600 N. The pressure is 19 600 N/m2, which is 19 600 Pa or 19.6 kPa.
The pressure at a depth of 1 m is 9.8 kPa. At 2 m, it is 19.6 kPa. At a depth of 3 m, the pressure will be 3
x 9.8 kPa = 29.4 kPa. The pressure rises by 9.8 kPa for each metre of depth, or by 9.8 kPa/m.

To calculate the pressure in water at any depth h, multiply the depth in metres by 9.8 kPa/m.

Exercises
1. What would the water pressure in kPa be, in fresh water, at these depths?
(a) 5.0 m (b) 10.0 m (c) 100 m (d) 1 km
2. The top level of the water in a reservoir is 50.0 m above a tap at the base of the reservoir. What is the maximum
pressure one might obtain at the tap, in kPa?
3. In your community, what is the source of your drinking water? How is sufficient water pressure obtained to supply
your needs?
4. A sunken ship is 4.0 km below the surface of the sea. What would be the approximate pressure at that depth? Why
would your calculation only give an approximate answer?
5. Why is the wall of a storage dam built wider at the base than at its top?

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