Question

1. What things are important in determining the hydrostatic pressure at the bottom of a liquid filled vessel?

2. What levels of pressure can be found in the deepest parts of the earth's oceans?

Answer 1

1.

The pressure at a given depth in a static liquid is a result the weight of the liquid acting on a unit area at that depth plus any pressure acting on the surface of the liquid is given by

                     P =Patm+pgh

The pressure due to the liquid alone at a given depth depends only upon the density of the liquid ? and the distance below the surface of the liquid h.

                       P =pgh                        

2.

At the bottom of the trench the water column above exerts a pressure of 1,086 bars (15,750 psi), over 1000 times the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level. At this pressure the density of water is increased by 4.96%, making 95 litres of water under the pressure of the Challenger Deep contain the same mass as 100 litres at the surface. The temperature at the bottom is 1 to 4