Mark John Arsulo – BS Civil Engineering

PHY052.1 – Physics Laboratory

Reaction Paper 3

The recent module of the Physics Laboratory discussed Pascal's Principle. And
honestly, this lesson is not that hard to understand. It became easy for me to familiarize the
overall concept behind this lesson and also manage to master the mathematical approach of
this topic. The terms that were used in this lesson were very familiar to me but I was just
amazed at the idea that Any change in the pressure applied to a completely enclosed fluid is
transmitted undiminished to all parts of the fluid and the enclosing walls. And with these, I’ve
just realized that our engineers and inventors have done a great job on taking advantage of
this process. It is just amazing to understand that we could harness the capacity of a simple
static state of fluid and use it as a tool in real-life problems. And to be honest many of us
especially those people who are not much involved in the field of engineering will normally
view this hydraulics as a product of modern technology, not recognizing that this simple fluid
power system can easily cope with a huge amount of force disregarding the use of any
supporting system such as gears and pulleys. Example, the application of the hydraulic system
that was discussed on the reading material, it was explained that it was primarily used in
brakes and car lifting. Easily, I could imagine it in a situation where an external force is applied
to the piston on the left. As a result, an external force is exerted on the cap on the chamber
on the right. I could also relate it in the field of Civil Engineering, the mechanical application of
liquids based on what I have noticed and observed on books and documentaries it is useful
to understand how the water will affect its environment and to assess what conditions do we
need to consider in building fluid retaining structures such as canals, dams, irrigations and
piping systems.

Overall, I’m just having fun while learning Pascal's principle since I know it will help me
as an engineering student to understand the mechanism behind the concept of hydraulic
system, which is also very significant in the field of building infrastructure. I’m just thankful that
acquiring the basic knowledge of the capability of the hydraulic systems on moving heavier
loads as well as providing greater force than mechanical, electrical or other pneumatic
systems will serve as my guide in my future work hopefully.