Understanding Pressure - Example 1

Finding the force acted on a surface when the pressure and surface area are given.

Difficulty Level: 1

Example:
A force F is acting on a surface of area 20cm², produces a pressure 2500Pa on the surface. Find the magnitude of the force.

Answer:
This is a pretty direct question. We just need to write the formula and then substitute all the related value that we have into the formula and then solve it.

However, we need to be careful about the unit. If the pressure is in Pa, then the unit of area must be in m².

1 m² = 10000 cm²

From the question,
A = 20 cm² = 0.002 m²
P = 2500 Pa
P= F A (2500)= F 0.002 F=(2500)(0.002) F=5N