Water rises to the same level, no matter what the shape of the container is.

This demonstration is actually an illustration of what is known as the hydrostatic paradox,

which is explained by Pascal’s principle, which is also called Pascal’s law, and which is
usually stated: Pressure applied to an enclosed fluid is transmitted undiminished to every
portion of the fluid and the walls of the containing vessel. If we imagine a vessel filled with
liquid, either open to the atmosphere or closed with a piston pressing down on the top of the
liquid, the pressure at any point within the liquid equals the sum of the external pressure
(exerted either by the atmosphere or by the piston), which we can call p0, and the pressure
exerted by the liquid between the top surface and that point, which is merely the weight of
the liquid above unit area at that point, or ρgh, or p = p0 + ρgh, where ρ is the density of the
liquid, g is the acceleration of gravity, and h is the height of the liquid above the point in
question. If we now change the pressure on the surface, either by placing the vessel inside a
chamber whose pressure we can make different from that of the atmosphere, or by changing
the force on the piston, by Δp0, since liquids are essentially incompressible, the density does
not change, and the new pressure at the same place in the liquid is just p + Δp0. Strictly
speaking, when we change the pressure at one place in a liquid, there is an instantaneous
density change, which propagates through the liquid as a wave at the speed of sound in that
liquid. Once this wave has died away, the density throughout the liquid is again uniform, and
Pascal’s principle holds. Pascal’s principle also holds for gases, except that it is necessary to
take into account the changes in volume that occur when one changes the pressure on a
confined gas.

We can see why the pressure in a fluid depends on the height of the fluid column, but not on
the shape of the vessel in which it is contained, when we consider that wherever the fluid is
in contact with the wall of the vessel, the force between it and the wall is perpendicular to