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[XKCD] Pascal's Law
(imgs.xkcd.com)
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this post was submitted on 11 May 2025
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You can loosely think of hydraulics like pulleys, whatever ratio of input to output power you create is accompanied by a reduction in distance moved.
So a weight of 1kg on an area of 1sqm could balance a weight of 10kg on an area of 10sqm, but moving the 1kg would only generate 1m of travel for every 10m of movement applied.
If you try and displace 1sqm by 10m, you are displacing 10 cubic metres. If you use that displacement to move an area 10x the size, it need only move 1/10 of the distance i.e. 1 metre
You need to keep adding weight (force) to achieve the movement. The initial weight will only balance the system.
I assume that the comic is about breaking apart the mountain, you don't have to move far at all to achieve destruction. You also need a watertight system.
I like to explain it using the word "spend".
Like all levers you spend one quantity to get another. Usually distance/force; you spend distance to get force, or you spend force to get distance.
This is a way better and simpler explanation of the general principle. Thanks
Work is the product of force and distance traveled.
Yes, but it's way easier to add more fluid to an hydraulic system than it is to add travel distance to a pulley or size to a lever. So we kinda break that rule by adding a little bit of movement again and again.
Pully system is pretty weird, but I like levers for my intuition. You can directly see smaller part moving smaller distance but with greater force. Also you always experience it when opening doors by pusing various parts