Question icon
Grade 11Mechanics

Why pressure is a scalar quantity not tensor quantity

Profile image of shivanya desai
8 Years agoGrade 11
Answers icon

1 Answer

Profile image of Arun
8 Years ago
Pressure is a scalar quantity. Not a vector quantity.(Mind you vector and scalar are rank-1 and rank-0 tensor, so your question about being a tensor is a meaningless one, as tensor is both vector and scalar and what not, so yes it is a tensor.)And as to why it is a scalar: It`s because you always take the force in the direction perpendicular to area, what it basically say is that you take the component of the force in the direction of area (remember the direction of area is perpendicular to the surface!) and divide it by the area.