Calculus › Section H · Applications of integrals › Topic H.7
Fluid pressure and force
Dive to the bottom of a pool and you feel the water press on your ears, harder the deeper you go. Pressure grows with depth, so a dam wall or a tank window cannot be designed from a single number: the deep parts take more force per square metre than the shallow parts, and the total force becomes an integral.
In this topic
- The push of water
- Pressure and its laws
- Force on a horizontal surface
- Vertical surfaces: why an integral
- Worked example: a rectangular floodgate
- Worked example: a triangular gate
- The centroid shortcut
- Why dams are thicker at the bottom
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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Standards: Beyond AP