Hydrostatic Pressure Calculator

This hydrostatic pressure calculator determines the pressure that arises at a certain depth of a liquid. Have you ever wondered what the pressure level in water is compared to atmospheric pressure? What determines the pressure? Read on if you want to find out how you can estimate fluid pressure using the hydrostatic pressure equation. You can also check our air pressure at altitude calculator if you don't want to go deeper but higher.

Each particle of a liquid is subjected to a gravitational force directed toward the Earth. The deeper we are, the more such particles are above us, and the higher the fluid pressure (because the acting force is greater — see our pressure calculator). If the fluid is at rest, we call it hydrostatic pressure. An interesting fact is that the value of hydrostatic pressure does not depend on the size and shape of the tank but only on the depth. Surprisingly, the same hydrostatic pressure will be present in a huge pool as in a thin pipe, provided they have the same height.

To explore fluid pressure further, visit our PSI to GPM calculator.

Our hydrostatic pressure calculator uses the below hydrostatic pressure formula:

$p = \rho × g × h + p_0$

where:

• $p$ — Hydrostatic pressure;
• $\rho$ — Density of fluid;
• $g$ — Gravitational acceleration (the average value for the Earth is $g = 9.80665\rm\ m/s^2$);
• $h$ — Depth; and
• $p_0$ — External pressure (usually atmospheric pressure $p_0 = 1\rm\ atm = 1,\!013.25\ hPa$).

The above formula for hydrostatic pressure determines buoyancy force, which was discovered for the first time by an ancient inventor — Archimedes. See our buoyancy calculator for more information. Expanding the Additional parameters field in our hydrostatic pressure calculator, you can change the gravitational acceleration $g$ and the external pressure $p_0$.

The deepest part of the world's oceans is the Mariana Trench, which is located in the Pacific Ocean. It reaches the highest known depth of around 11,000 m. Let's use our hydrostatic pressure calculator to estimate the pressure at the bottom of the Marian Trench (remember to choose salty water with $\rho = 1022\ \rm kg/m^3$).

Astonishingly, the pressure here is more than 1000 times bigger than the atmospheric pressure!