Article
Article
Hydrostatics
Article By:
Hagist, Warren M. Formerly, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island.
Last reviewed:January 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.330900
The study of fluids at rest; that is, at every point in the fluid, the velocity and acceleration are zero. The only force acting at a point on the surface of a small volume of fluid is due to the pressure at that point, and the force is perpendicular to the surface. Application of Newton's second law shows that the pressure is independent of the orientation of the surface on which it is acting, and that the pressure increases with depth.
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