Static Pressure Concept

Demonstrations in Static Pressure

Side-by-side photos of the buoyancy apparatus in a beaker of water. Left: rubber plate held against the bottom of the hollow cylinder with the cylinder empty. Right: plate has fallen to the bottom of the beaker after filling the cylinder with water.

Buoyancy Apparatus

Demonstrates that buoyancy arises from pressure differences, not from some inherent "lifting force" of water. A plate seals the bottom of a submerged hollow cylinder; it stays attached when only …
Fluid level tube apparatus in a white frame: four connected glass tubes filled with blue-colored water -- one straight wide tube, one with zigzag bends, one spiral, and one S-curve -- all showing water at the same height

Fluid Level Tubes

Connected tubes of different shapes (straight, zigzag, spiral, S-curve) all equilibrate to the same water level, showing that hydrostatic pressure depends only on vertical height, not path geometry.
Four connected glass vessels—narrow tube, Erlenmeyer flask, funnel, and beaker—mounted on a wooden base and connected by red tubing, all filled with red-colored water to the same height

Fluid Level Vessels

Connected vessels of different shapes show that static fluid level depends only on depth, not container geometry. Demonstrates the hydrostatic paradox: containers with vastly different fluid masses exert the same …
Two glass Pascal's fountain syringes with spherical bulbs containing small holes, shown with plungers

Pressure Syringe

Demonstrates Pascal's principle: pressure applied to a confined fluid transmits equally in all directions. When the syringe plunger is pressed, water jets emerge at equal distances from holes around the …
Hydraulic jack mounted in a frame with two vertical guide rods, a hand pump lever on the right, a pressure gauge (0–5000 psi) on the front, and a piece of 2x2 wood positioned between the piston and the upper compression plate
Safety

Pascal's Law, Hydraulic Press

Students observe Pascal's Law in action as a hand-pumped hydraulic jack crushes a section of 2x2 lumber. The dramatic fracture demonstrates how hydraulic systems transmit pressure through incompressible fluid to …
Vacuum cylinder mounted vertically between two support rods with table clamps, hand vacuum pump on left connected by hose, heavy weight hanging from piston

Vacuum Cylinder

Demonstrates the magnitude of atmospheric pressure by using a hand vacuum pump to evacuate a cylinder, allowing atmospheric pressure to lift and support a ~12 kg weight with only 2-3 …