Pressure Converter

About Pressure

Pressure is a force measurement applied in a direction perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area. Pressure is a significant physics principle, in fluid dynamics, meteorology, and in industrial systems.

• Pascal (Pa) – The SI pressure unit (1 Pa = 1 N/m²).
• Bar, millibar, hectopascal – Widely used in meteorology and industry.
• Atmosphere (atm), technical atmosphere (at) – Based on Earth's average pressure.
• psi, ksi – Used in engineering and mechanics with imperial units.
• mmHg, inHg – Mercury column-based, used in medicine and weather gauges.
• Torr – Essentially equal to mmHg, used in vacuum and low-pressure regimes.
• N/mm², dyn/cm² – Employed in stress analysis and precision physics.

Pressure Units

Pressure is an important physical quantity that measures force per unit area. Pressure plays a significant role in numerous scientific, engineering, and industrial uses ranging from weather forecasting to hydraulic systems and material testing. Due to the fact that pressure may widely range in scale and context, numerous units have been created to measure pressure accurately.

The International System of Units (SI) employ the Pascal (Pa) as the unit of pressure. However, with the different fields or areas, there are different other units employed to describe pressure values with engineering use.

Common Units of Pressure

• Pascal (Pa): The SI unit, equivalent to one newton per square meter, commonly used in engineering and scientific calculations.
• Kilopascal (kPa): 1,000 Pascals, applied in meteorology and engineering.
• Megapascal (MPa): One million Pascals, used in material science and high-pressure systems.
• Bar (bar): 100,000 Pascals, commonly applied in industry and meteorology.
• Millibar (mbar): One-thousandth of a bar, commonly applied in meteorology to measure atmospheric pressure.
• Hectopascal (hPa): One millibar, commonly applied in weather forecasting.
• Standard atmosphere (atm): Reference unit that approximates Earth's mean atmospheric pressure at sea level.
• Technical atmosphere (at): Used primarily in engineering use, otherwise specified than the standard atmosphere.
• Torr (torr): Common in vacuum physics, equal to 1/760 of the standard atmosphere.
• Pound per square inch (psi): Imperial unit commonly used in the US, common in tire pressures and hydraulic use.
• Kilopound per square inch (ksi): 1,000 psi equivalent, used to test material strength.
• Inch of mercury (inHg): Used mainly in meteorology and aerospace use for atmospheric pressures.
• Millimeter of mercury (mmHg): Very common in medical applications such as the reading of blood pressure.
• Inch of water (inH₂O): Used in HVAC and low-pressure systems.
• Millimeter of water (mmH₂O): Identical application to inch of water but on metric basis.
• Kilogram per square centimeter (kg/cm²): Used in some industry and engineering settings, especially outside the US.
• Gram per square centimeter (g/cm²): A small unit for very low pressures, sometimes used in the lab.
• Newton per square millimeter (N/mm²): Equivalent to MPa, widely used in engineering and material science.
• Dyne per square centimeter (dyn/cm²): Primarily used in older scientific literature and niche physics applications.

Understanding these units of pressure and how to convert them is vital for accurate measurement, efficient communication, and maintaining safety in many technology and scientific applications. The right unit is chosen based on the context and magnitude of the pressure under measurement.