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 why pressure is a scalar quantity?

Dear Student!

Pressure has no direction, they are compared in terms of their magnitude only. Consider mercury column used for measuring atmospheric pressure. The weight of mercury column acts downward, still the pressure exerted by it is equivalent to that of atmospheric pressure. Im case of liquid, if you exert  pressure at any point, it is transmitted equally in all directions, and not just in the direction of presure exerted. It forms the basis of Pascal's law and many hydraulic machines. Thus, you can conclude thar pressure is scalar and has no direction.

Hope it is clear!!

Cheers!!

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View Full Answer

 Pressure is Force / Area.

Force is vector.

Area is not a scalar but a vector whose direction is perpendicular to the plane of area. This vector is called area vector.

So actually
Pressure = Force vector . 1/Area vector

Pressure = Force vector . (1/Area) vector

Pressure = Magnitude of Force * (1/Area)* (cos of angle between force and area vector)
The product is a dot product of two vectors and therefore answer is always scalar.

  • 8

 thank you sir

  • -1

bcoz pressure has no direction n has magnitude 

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