What pressure is a person exerting on the floor if the person weighs 145 lbs and has shoes that contact the floor over a total area of 300. cm^2?
Since pressure is measured in force/area, and they have only given you two data, there's not much doubt as to what calculation to make:
p = 145lb/300cm^2 = 29/60 lb/cm^2
Now, two questions for you:
1. How is this chemistry?
2. What scientist mixes English and metric units?
Thank you! This is one of the very introductory chapters. It teaches conversion rates and the difference between English, Metric, and SI Units, which is why there are English and Metric Units. The point is to convert the English units to Metric first.
To calculate the pressure a person is exerting on the floor, you can use the formula:
Pressure = Force / Area
First, let's convert the weight of the person from pounds to Newtons since pressure is typically measured in Newtons per square meter (N/m^2) or Pascal (Pa).
To convert pounds to Newtons, we need to use the conversion factor of 1 lb = 4.44822 N. Therefore, 145 lbs is equal to 145 * 4.44822 = 644.1539 N.
Next, we need to convert the area from square centimeters to square meters since the unit of pressure is typically given in terms of square meters.
To convert square centimeters to square meters, we divide the area by 10,000. Therefore, 300 cm^2 is equal to 300 / 10000 = 0.03 m^2.
Now we can calculate the pressure:
Pressure = 644.1539 N / 0.03 m^2
Pressure = 21,471.7967 N/m^2
So, the person is exerting a pressure of approximately 21,471.7967 N/m^2 on the floor.