{ "cells": [ { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "# Fluid Statics I\n", "\n", "## Learning outcomes\n", "\n", "* Derive Pascal's Law\n", "* Learn about how pressure is distributed in volumes of fluid at rest\n", "* Learn about hydrostatic pressure\n", "* Explore how pressure and temperature is distributed in the Earth's atmosphere\n", "* Compare different units of pressure measurement\n", "\n", "# Introduction\n", "\n", "Herein we will describe hydrostatics in some detail. This, and many of the other topics we will cover, will involve some mathematics, but I will endeavour to help your understanding of this with diagrams, animations and interactive python code snippets. As with all problems in engineering and physics we attempt to gain an understanding of the world by imagining a simpler version of reality ignoring all wrinkles and disturbances and focusing on the general nature of the system. In the example below we take the ocean floor and imagine a cube of sea water and the sand beneath it. We simplify this as a perfectly still region of fluid so that the upper and lower surface are perfectly flat. We assume that the sea bed is completely rigid and does not move. We ignore and influences from the side and assume that invisible force fields are preventing the water escaping – or simply that the side walls are periodic so that any water exiting one side is transported into the opposite side. Any disturbance will eventually dissipate and we are left with a perfectly still box of fluid. Now within this volume of fluid we can consider a finite element of fluid.\n", "\n", "It is important to be able to look at the world in this manner and reduce complex systems to these kinds of cartoons. As we learn more about the system we can add complexity.\n", "\n", "\n", "