What is the relationship between pressure and distance in the ocean?

Answer 1

Water pressure can be calculated easily if you know the simple steps on how to calculate water pressure. Water pressure is also called as hydrostatic pressure and is calculated for the non-moving fluid. It can be calculated for any amount of large water body. You can easily calculate water pressure using simple equation.

Formula for calculating water pressure:

P = a + l × g × h

In the above formula,

• "P" is the water pressure
• "a" is the atmospheric pressure at the surface of water
• "l" is the density of water
• "g" is the gravitational acceleration
• "h" is the depth of water

To calculate water pressure you need to know the depth of water, atmospheric pressure at the surface of water, density of water and gravitational acceleration.

• We generally use the standard values of gravitational acceleration (g) and density of water (l). Standard value of density of water is 1000 kg/m3 and standard value of earth's gravitational acceleration is 9.8 m/s2.
• Determine the depth at which you want to calculate the water pressure, substitute it in the place of "h" in the above formula.
• Determine the pressure at the surface of water. You need to use the barometer for measuring the pressure of water, substitute this in the place of "a" in the above formula. The pressure at the surface of water should be expressed in kg/ms2. You can use help of online sources to convert into desired units.
• Substitute all the measured values in the above equation and calculate the pressure of water.
• Multiply the result obtained by 0.014. This will convert the value in pounds per square inch.
• This is the calculated water pressure or hydrostatic pressure.

Calculating water pressure in a pipe:

Water pressure in a pipe is basically weight of the water above the point where you want to calculate the water pressure. To calculate water pressure within a pipe you need to know the vertical difference in the water level between the pipe and the water surface. This distance can be either vertical distance or horizontal distance, doesn't matter.

Steps for calculating water pressure within a pipe:

• Step 1: Locate the nearest surface of water from where the water reaches your source. This surface can be anything from a water tower, water tank, lake or a sea.
• Step 2: Calculate the elevation of this water surface from your source. You need proper measuring instruments for this. If the water surface is a water tank, then you need to include the height of the tower in your calculation.
• Step 3: Find out the measurement of the elevation where your water source is located or the distance of the outlet of the pipe from the ground level.
• Step 4: If this pipe is located underground then subtract the distance of the pipe from the ground surface.
• Step 5: Finally subtract the measurement of the elevation of your pipe from the measured elevation of the water surface.
• Step 6: You will get the value of water pressure in feet head if you have measured the distances in feet or meter head if you have measured the distances in meter. This value needs to be converted into appropriate units of pressure.
• Step 7: Using online resources convert the above measured values into appropriate units of pressure by entering the values you calculated into the text boxes and clicking on the calculate button. As most of the online converters convert pounds square inches to the units of pressure, multiply the value in feet head by 0.433 and meter head in 1.4202 to convert them into PSI units.