It follows that the pressure of a fluid requires to be calculated in one direction only, chosen as the simplest direction for convenience.

7. The Transmissibility of Fluid Pressure.—Any additional pressure applied to the fluid will be transmitted equally to every point in the case of a liquid; this principle of the transmissibility of pressure was enunciated by Pascal, 1653, and applied by him to the invention of the hydraulic press.

This machine consists essentially of two communicating cylinders (fig. 1a), filled with liquid and closed by pistons. If a thrust P ℔ is applied to one piston of area A ft.2, it will be balanced by a thrust W ℔ applied to the other piston of area B ft.2, where

p = P/A = W/B,

(1)

the pressure p of the liquid being supposed uniform; and, by making the ratio B/A sufficiently large, the mechanical advantage can be increased to any desired amount, and in the simplest manner possible, without the intervention of levers and machinery.

Fig. 1b shows also a modern form of the hydraulic press, applied to the operation of covering an electric cable with a lead coating.

8. Theorem.—In a fluid at rest under gravity the pressure is the same at any two points in the same horizontal plane; in other words, a surface of equal pressure is a horizontal plane.

This is proved by taking any two points A and B at the same level, and considering the equilibrium of a thin prism of liquid AB, bounded by planes at A and B perpendicular to AB. As gravity and the fluid pressure on the sides of the prism act at right angles to AB, the equilibrium requires the equality of thrust on the ends A and B; and as the areas are equal, the pressure must be equal at A and B; and so the pressure is the same at all points in the same horizontal plane. If the fluid is a liquid, it can have a free surface without diffusing itself, as a gas would; and this free surface, being a surface of zero pressure, or more generally of uniform atmospheric pressure, will also be a surface of equal pressure, and therefore a horizontal plane.

Fig. 1b.