A U-shaped tube open to the air at both ends contains some mercury. A quantity of water is carefully poured into the left arm of the U-shaped tube until the vertical height of the water column is 15.0cm. (a) What is the gauge pressure at the mercury-water interface? (b) Calculate the vertical distance h from the top of the mercury in the right-hand arm of the tube to the top of the water in the left-hand arm.
Fluid Pressure
The term fluid pressure is coined as, the measurement of the force per unit area of a given surface of a closed container. It is a branch of physics that helps to study the properties of fluid under various conditions of force.
Gauge Pressure
Pressure is the physical force acting per unit area on a body; the applied force is perpendicular to the surface of the object per unit area. The air around us at sea level exerts a pressure (atmospheric pressure) of about 14.7 psi but this doesn’t seem to bother anyone as the bodily fluids are constantly pushing outwards with the same force but if one swims down into the ocean a few feet below the surface one can notice the difference, there is increased pressure on the eardrum, this is due to an increase in hydrostatic pressure.
Practice Exercise 17
A U-shaped tube open to the air at both ends contains some mercury. A quantity of water is carefully poured into the left arm of the U-shaped tube until the vertical height of the water column is 15.0cm.
(a) What is the gauge pressure at the mercury-water interface?
(b) Calculate the vertical distance h from the top of the mercury in the right-hand arm of the tube to the top of the water in the left-hand arm.
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