Hydrostatic Pressure

What is Hydrostatic Pressure?

The pressure exerted by a fluid at rest, which increases linearly with depth due to the weight of fluid above. It's why a dam must be built far thicker at its base than at its crest — the pressure the structure has to resist is far greater down at the bottom.

The five clues

Engineerdle #59 described Hydrostatic Pressure with five clues, revealed one at a time from hardest to most direct. Each clue points at a different property of the concept.

1. 01Pressure that exists even when nothing is moving at all.
2. 02It builds with depth, not with distance sideways.
3. 03Your ears feel it increase as you dive to the bottom of a pool.
4. 04A dam has to be built thicker at the base for exactly this reason.
5. 05P = ρgh — pressure increases linearly with depth in a static fluid.

More Fluid Mechanics concepts

• Venturi EffectPuzzle #50
• ViscosityPuzzle #46
• Reynolds NumberPuzzle #41
• Newtonian FluidPuzzle #36
• Non-Newtonian FluidPuzzle #31
• Pascal's LawPuzzle #13