Hi, I'm Peyton Degh and welcome to Project Strang. I didn't know anything about engineering or physics and I'm on a mission to learn from industry professionals about what it takes to build the structures around us, whether it be our apartment buildings or the bridges we cross on the way to work. Today's episode is on pressure. History. Blaze Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. Blaze, at only 18 years old in 1642, invented a mechanical calculator. This calculator was invented to help his father, who worked in finance at the time, crunched numbers a little bit easier. Seven years later, in 1649, King Louis XIV gave him a royal privilege for his invention, which is similar to a patent. This ensured the right to Pascal to exclusively build calculators for general use. Around 1654, Pascal developed his probability theory, his most famous and influential theory to be used in mathematics. This theory came about when Pascal wanted to solve a gambling problem involving dice and expected outcomes. He was in it to win it. His contributions to mathematics and particularly physics were honored by using his namesake in the international system of measurement, also known as SI units. Did you know that snow shoes are built the way that they are? Because the pressure you place upon them is spread across a larger surface area? You feel lighter on the snow because the snow is being stepped on by your weight distributed across a larger surface area versus shoes that fit your feet. So next time, we're looking for a pair of winter boots just opt for a pair of snow shoes instead. You will not be caught sinking in the snow like the rest of your loser friends. Anyways, my friend Monty stopped by to explain what a Pascal is in the context of structural engineering as well as what pressure is. The interview. Monty? Yeah. You practice shooting hoops over here too? I do actually. Hi, Payton. How are you today? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. Great. I got a question for you. What is pressure? Well, pressure is defined as a force per unit area. You might commonly see it in units like bars, kilopascals, or pascals. Pascals basically a Newton per meter squared. So that basically means that you have one Newton of force applied on one meter squared of surface area represents one Pascal. Makes sense so far? Sure. How does pressure and Pascal affect our everyday lives? Everyday lives? Literally everywhere you go. Even this basketball you're holding, there's actually a label on it that says maximum PSI is nine PSI. So you have seven to nine PSI. What that means is on a one inch by one inch surface area of this ball if you were to analyze it, there is a maximum of nine pounds of air force pushing against that one inch by one inch surface area. Is that what causes it to bounce? That is what causes it to bounce. How does pressure and Pascal, what is it? How does pressure and Pascal, how is it used in structural engineering? Yeah, just ask how is it used in structural engineering? Well, it's literally used everywhere. Some really common locations you would see in structural engineering would be formwork design. There is a hydrostatic pressure from the concrete applied on the forms. So that is one way you'd also see it in the atmosphere itself. So of course you have atmospheric pressure. You know when you're driving up or downhill you feel the ringing in your ears. That's the change in pressure. You'd also see it as a load applied. So you'd have like a pressure from the wind, pressure from live load, dead load. So many ways you'll see it in structural engineering. Even soil actually you have lateral pressure from soil when you're doing retaining walls. So everywhere you see pressure. Why did you choose engineering? I was good at physics and math in high school. So my teacher recommended that I go into engineering and from there I seem to love it. So what is your favorite formula? I'll ask you that. What do I love most about engineering? No, what's your favorite? Yes, sir. Answer that. Yeah. What do you love most about engineering? Well, I love the analytical part of it. You have to analyze structures. So that's really interesting to me. It's also a good challenge and I enjoy a challenge. Is there such thing as too much pressure in terms of engineering and stuff? If you have too much pressure in this ball it will pop for example, right? But in terms of too much pressure I haven't really heard of that. It just means your structure will fail or whatever you're building it fail. So what's your favorite formula? Well, I don't actually have one but you can never go wrong with E equals MC squared. I remember one. Albert Einstein's. See even you know that one. Nice. Would you rather be a famous basketball player or an engineer? I would say famous basketball player. What was your first job? I was picking berries on a farm. How did you get that job? Well, there was a farmer that needed help. People picked berries down the road and I said I can help. That's how I got the job. It's good to experience it. You know, it makes you thankful for other things, right? For berries. Yeah, for berries or for more real work, you know. Did you ever steal any berries? No, I didn't steal but I would eat some. Have you ever stolen like shoplifted? I have. I think I've stolen a lollipop. No, what happened there? I think the wind took that one I would say. So does is wind a pressure? I guess yeah, wind can affect. There is wind in the air now so the wind applies a pressure on the ball and the force is greater of the wind. The bigger the ball is because the area is greater. So basically, pressure is defined as a force per unit area measured in Pascal's aka a Newton per meter squared. Pressure affects everything like in a basketball or in the cars we drive up hills. Pressure can be a load, live or dead. It's the physical force exerted on an object or a surface and is instrumental to structural engineering and considering loads and buildings. A special thank you to Monty for teaching me about pressure and how to play basketball like a pro and a special thank you to you for watching until the end of the video. I hope you learned as much as I did. While you're still here, like and subscribe to learn more about structural engineering with me. My name is Peyton Dagg and this has been another episode of Project Stretch. Don't forget to enjoy the process. Let's try from here. Okay, let me try the other ball. I haven't scored one for the last what 20 shots I think. No pressure, no pressure. No pressure. That's good actually. I like that. Oh, I guess that. I took the pressure off of you. That's right. You scored.