# Math Help - Hydrostatic pressure

1. ## Hydrostatic pressure

A vertical plate is submerged in water and has the shape as seen in the picture. Assume that the measurements shown in the picture have U.S. Customary units. Using the fact that the weight of water is calculate the hydrostatic force (in lbs) against the end of the tank.
(Hint: First set up a Riemann sum that approximates the hydrostatic force, which can then be used to obtain an integral that represents the force.)

2. ## Re: Hydrostatic pressure

There appears to be something missing- any attempt at all by yourself to do this problem! If you were given a problem like this, surely you were given some idea as to how to at least begin the problem! Do you know how to calculate the water pressure at a given depth? Since the pressure depends only upon the depth, it will be constant along a horizontal line. Find the width of the plate at a given depth, x, and multiply by the pressure at that depth. That, times "dx", representing an infinitesmal thickness of the line, gives the force on the line. Integrate that.