Question

The Earth's atmosphere at sea level and under normal conditions has a pressure of 1.01x105 Pa, which is due to the weight of the air above the ground pushing down on it. How much force due to this pressure is exerted on the roof of a building whose dimensions are 16.3 m long and 16.4 m wide?

Answer 1

ANSWER:

2.7*10^7 N

STEP-BY-STEP EXPLANATION:

The pressure is given by the following equation:

$P=\frac{F}{A}$

We can solve for F which is the force, but we must know the area (A), which we can calculate with the given data, like this:

$\begin{gathered} A=16.3\cdot16.4 \\ A=267.32m^2 \end{gathered}$

We substitute and calculate the force as follows:

$\begin{gathered} F=P\cdot A \\ F=1.01\cdot10^5\cdot267.32 \\ F=26999320=2.7\cdot10^7\text{ N} \end{gathered}$

Therefore, the force is equal to 2.7*10^7 N