Pascal's law or the principle of transmission of fluid-pressure is a principle in fluid mechanics that states that pressure exerted anywhere

in a confined incompressible fluid is transmitted equally in all directions throughout the fluid such that the pressure [1] [2] variations (initial differences) remain the same. The law was established by French mathematician Blaise Pascal.

pascal's principle is defined as A change in pressure at any point in an enclosed fluid at rest is transmitted undiminished to all points in the fluid This principle is stated mathematically as:

is the hydrostatic pressure (given in pascals in the SI system), or the difference in pressure at two points within a fluid column, due to the weight of the fluid; is the fluid density (in kilograms per cubic meter in the SI system); g is acceleration due to gravity (normally using the sea level acceleration due to Earth's gravity in metres per second squared); is the height of fluid above the point of measurement, or the difference in elevation between the two points within the fluid column (in metres in SI). The intuitive explanation of this formula is that the change in pressure between two elevations is due to the weight of the fluid between the elevations. Note that the variation with height does not depend on any additional pressures. Therefore Pascal's law can be interpreted as saying that any change in pressure applied at any given point of the fluid is transmitted undiminished throughout the fluid. Because the force applied to the contained fluid is distributed throughout the system, you can multiply the applied force through this application of Pascals Principle in the following manner. Assume you have a closed container filled with an incompressible fluid with two pistons of differing areas, A 1 and A2. If you apply a force, F1, to the piston of area A1, you create a pressure in the fluid which you can call P1.

Similarly, the pressure at the second piston, P2, must be equal to F2 divided by the area of the second piston, A2.

Since the pressure is transmitted equally throughout the fluid in all directions according to Pascals Principle , P1 must equal P2.

Rearranging to solve for F2, you find that F2 is increased by the ratio of the areas A2 over A1.

Therefore, you have effectively increased the applied force F1. Of course, the law of conservation of energy cannot be violated, so the work done on the system must balance the work done by the system. In the hydraulic lift diagram shown on the previous page, the distance over which F1 is applied will be greater than the distance over which F2 is applied, by the exact same ratio as the force multiplier! Question: A barber raises his customers chair by applying a force of 150N to a hydraulic piston of area 0.01 m . If 2 the chair is attached to a piston of area 0.1 m , how massive a customer can the chair raise? Assume the chair itself has a mass of 5 kg.
Answer: To solve this problem, first determine the force applied to the larger piston.
2

If the maximum force on the chair is 1500N, you can now determine the maximum mass which can be lifted by recognizing that the force that must be overcome to lift the customer is the force of gravity, therefore the applied force on the customer must equal the force of gravity on the customer.

If the chair has a mass of 5 kilograms, the maximum mass of a customer in the chair must be 148 kg. Question: A hydraulic system is used to lift a 2000-kg vehicle in an auto garage. If the vehicle sits on a piston of area 0.5 square meter, and a force is applied to a piston of area 0.03 square meters, what is the minimum force that must be applied to lift the vehicle?

Answer: