Pressure Calculator
Pressure is force divided by area, and almost everything interesting about it comes from the area in the denominator. The same push concentrated on a knife edge and spread across a snowshoe produces pressures that differ by orders of magnitude.
Pressure in pascals
2,000
- Pressure in kilopascals
- 2
- Pressure in pounds per square inch
- 0.2901
- Pressure in bar
- 0.02
Values update as you type. This calculator covers the single scenario its formula assumes — see Common Mistakes for what it leaves out.
The formula this calculator uses
P = F / A
- P
- Pressure — force per unit area, in pascals
- F
- Force acting perpendicular to the surface, in newtons
- A
- Area carrying the force, in square metres
How to check the result by hand
- 1
Identify the force acting perpendicular to the surface
Only the component of the force at right angles to the surface produces pressure. A 500 N push pressed straight down onto a table counts in full, while the same 500 N pulling sideways along the surface produces none. Resolve any angled force into its perpendicular part first, because mixing the two is the quickest way to an answer that is too large. Write the force in newtons before going further.
- 2
Measure the area that actually carries the force
The relevant area is the contact patch, not the whole object. A 700 N person on snowshoes spreads the load over 0.35 square metres, while the same person in boots covers only 0.02 square metres. Record the area in square metres, converting from square centimetres by dividing by 10000. A wrong area here changes the pressure in direct proportion, with nothing in the arithmetic to warn you.
- 3
Divide force by area to get pascals
500 N divided by 0.25 square metres is 2000 pascals. This single division is the whole calculation, and the unit of the answer is the pascal because a newton per square metre is exactly one pascal. Keep the result at full precision for now rather than rounding, because later conversions such as the one to psi will expose any early trimming. Note that halving the area would double the pressure to 4000 pascals.
- 4
Convert to the unit the context expects
2000 pascals is 2.0 kilopascals, 0.02 bar and 0.29007547546043366 psi. Divide by 1000 for kilopascals, by 100000 for bar and by 6894.757293168 for psi. Each factor is exact, so no error enters from the conversion itself. Choose the unit that matches the gauge or the specification you are working with, and state it explicitly beside the number.
- 5
Check the magnitude against a familiar reference
Standard atmospheric pressure is 101325 pascals, so 2000 pascals is only about 0.0197 of an atmosphere. If your answer lands near or above 100000 pascals, you are either working at very high pressure or you have mismatched the units. Comparing the result with the atmosphere, a tyre at roughly 200000 pascals, or a knife edge at 500000 pascals makes a decimal error obvious immediately. Sanity-checking the size is faster than redoing the arithmetic.
For worked examples, common mistakes and the limits of this formula, read the full How To Calculate Pressure page.