Question

What is the meaning of the slope and the y-intercept on a pressure vs. depth graph?

Answer 1

The pressure and depth have a linear relationship i.e., the more depth it is, the columnar volume of fluid is more hence the force experienced by unit area will be more ==> pressure large

if we draw pressure vs. height

it will be of the form

y=mx+b

pressure is taken on the y axis and depth is taken on the x axis.

The slope m is related to the density of the fluid interms of acceleration due to gravity

m=gp

g is gravity and p is density

Now the intercept indicates the initial pressure,

for example, if we are measuring the pressure vs. depth starting from the ocean surface, the intercept would be indicating the surface pressure.