Grade 8 Chemistry

Pressure Notes
Pressure
Pressure is the force per unit area.
This means that the pressure a solid object exerts on another
solid surface is its weight in newtons divided by its area in
square metres

To increase pressure - increase the force or reduce the area

the force acts on. To cut up your dinner you can either press
harder on your knife or use a sharper one (sharper knives
have less surface area on the cutting edge of the blade).

To reduce pressure - decrease the force or increase the area

the force acts on. If you were standing on a frozen lake and
the ice started to crack you could lie down to increase the
area in contact with the ice. The same force (your weight)
would apply, spread over a larger area, so the pressure would
reduce. Snow shoes work in the same way.
Pressure in fluids
Liquids and gases are both called fluids because they are both
capable of flowing. The pressure in fluids that are at rest acts
equally in all directions
Barometers
Barometers can be used to predict the weather. They measure
changes in atmospheric pressure over time.
Differences in pressure are seen on weather forecast maps as
a pattern of isobars. These changes in pressure are used to
make predictions and, if used with wind readings, are
reasonably accurate.
Many traditional barometers contain mercury. The mercury is
in a long glass tube with an open reservoir at the bottom:
higher atmospheric pressure exerts a downward force on
the mercury in the reservoir - and pushes the mercury up
the tube
lower atmospheric pressure cannot hold up the weight
of the mercury column as effectively - so the mercury
moves lower down the tube