pressure
Pressure is what results when gas particles rebound off the walls of their container. The basic unit of pressure is the newton per square meter N/m2 . This combined unit is redefined as a pascal Pa . One pascal is not a very large amount of pressure. A more useful unit of pressure is the bar, which is 100,000 Pa 1 bar = 100,000 Pa . Other common units of pressure are the atmosphere atm , which was originally defined as the average pressure of Earths atmosphere at sea level; and mmHg millimeters of mercury , which is the pressure generated by a column of mercury 1 mm high. The unit millimeters of mercury is also called a torr, named after the Italian scientist Evangelista Torricelli, who invented the barometer in the mid1600s. A more precise definition of atmosphere, in terms of torr, is that there are exactly 760 torr in 1 atm. A bar equals 1.01325 atm. Given all the relationships between these pressure units, the ability to convert from one pressure unit to another is a useful skill.