Pressure

Description

The force per unit area on a surface. Pressure is a measurement of the force in an orthogonal direction to the surface. The SI unit of pressure is pascal (Pa), equal to one newton per square metre (N·m-2 or kg·m-1·s-2). Many former pressure measurements still exist, such as atmospheres (atm, for air pressures), bar (for air pressure), millimeters of mercury (mm of Hg, for air and liquid pressures), and kip (pound per square inch).

Synonyms and Related Terms

tlak (Ces.); tryk (Dan.); Druck (Deut.); presión (Esp.); pression (Fr.); pressione(It.); druk (Ned.); trykk (Nor.); ciśnienie (Pol.); pressão (Port.); tryck (Sven.)

Authority

• Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, 2000

• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, at http://www.wikipedia.com Comment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressure (accessed Mar. 2006)