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Bar(unit)Wikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Bar(unit)
FromWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Thisarticleisabouttheunitofpressure.Forotheruses,seeBar(disambiguation).Fortheinformalunit
ofsignalstrength,seeMobilephonesignal.
"Kbar"redirectshere.Fortheknife,seeKABAR.
Thebarisametric(butnotSI)unitofpressureexactlyequalto
100 000Pa.[1]ItisaboutequaltotheatmosphericpressureonEarthat
sealevel.
ThebarandthemillibarwereintroducedbytheBritishmeteorologist
WilliamNapierShawin1909,whilehewasthedirectorofthe
MeteorologicalOfficeinLondon.[2]
Unitsderivedfromthebararethemegabar(symbol:Mbar),kilobar
(symbol:kbar),decibar(symbol:dbar),centibar(symbol:cbar),
andmillibar(symbol:mbarormb).ThesearenotSIorcgsunits,but
theyareacceptedbytheBIPMforusewiththeSI.[1]Thebarislegally
recognizedincountriesoftheEuropeanUnion.[3]
Thebarunitisconsidereddeprecatedbysomeentities.Whilethe
BIPMincludesitundertheclass"NonSIunitsacceptedforusewith
theSI",[1]theNISTincludesitinthelistofunitstoavoidand
recommendstheuseofkilopascals(kPa)andmegapascals(MPa)
instead.[4]TheIAUalsolistsitunder"NonSIunitsandsymbols
whosecontinueduseisdeprecated."[5]
Bar(g)isaunitofgaugepressure,i.e.,pressureinbarsaboveambient
oratmosphericpressureseeabsolutepressureandgaugepressure
below.

Analuminiumcylinder
(5mmor0.197inthickness)after
700bar(10ksi)pressure.

Contents
1Definitionandconversion
2Origin
3Usage
4Absolutepressureandgaugepressure
5Seealso
6References
7Externallinks

Definitionandconversion
ThebarisdefinedusingtheSIunitpascal,namely:1bar100 000Pa.1baristhereforeequalto:
100kPa(inSIunits)
1 105N/m2(alternativerepresentationinSIunits)
1 000 000Ba(barye)(incgsunits)
andapproximatelyequalto
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0.987atm
14.5038psiabsolute
29.53inHg
750.06mmHg
750.06Torr
1 019.72cmH2O

Origin
ThewordbarhasitsoriginintheGreekword(baros),meaningweight.Theunit'sofficialsymbolis
bartheearliersymbolbisnowdeprecatedandconflictswiththeuseofbasaunitsymboltodenotethebarn,
butitisstillencountered,especiallyasmb(ratherthanthepropermbar)todenotethemillibar.

Usage
Atmosphericairpressureisoftengiveninmillibarswherestandardsealevelpressureisdefinedas1000mbar,
100(kPa),or1bar.Thisshouldbedistinguishedfromtheunitofpressureknownasthe"atmosphere"(atm),
whichisequalto1.01325bar.DespitethemillibarnotbeinganSIunit,meteorologistsandweatherreporters
worldwidehavelongmeasuredairpressureinmillibarsasthevaluesareconvenient.AftertheadventofSI
units,somemeteorologistsbeganusinghectopascals(symbolhPa)whicharenumericallyequivalentto
millibarsforthesamereason,thehectopascalisnowthestandardunitusedtoexpressbarometricpressuresin
aviationinmostcountries.Forexample,theweatherofficeofEnvironmentCanadauseskilopascalsand
hectopascalsontheirweathermaps.[6][7]Incontrast,AmericansarefamiliarwiththeuseofthemillibarinUS
reportsofhurricanesandothercyclonicstorms.
Infreshwater,thereisanapproximatenumericalequivalencebetweenthechangeinpressureindecibarsand
thechangeindepthfromthewatersurfaceinmetres.Specifically,anincreaseof1decibaroccursforevery
1.019716mincreaseindepth.Inseawaterwithrespecttothegravityvariation,thelatitudeandthe
geopotentialanomalythepressurecanbeconvertedintometersdepthaccordingtoanempiricalformula
(UNESCOTech.Paper44,p.25).[8]Asaresult,decibarsarecommonlyusedinoceanography.
Manyengineersworldwideusethebarasaunitofpressurebecause,inmuchoftheirwork,usingpascals
wouldinvolveusingverylargenumbers.
Intheautomotivefield,turbochargerboostisoftendescribedinbarsinthemetricpartoftheworld(i.e.
outsidetheUSA).
Unicodehascharactersfor"mb"(,U+33D4)and"bar"(,U+3374),buttheyexistonlyforcompatibility
withlegacyAsianencodingsandarenotintendedtobeusedinnewdocuments.
Thekilobar,equivalentto100MPa,iscommonlyusedingeologicalsystems,particularlyinexperimental
petrology.

Absolutepressureandgaugepressure
Bourdontubepressuregauges,vehicletiregauges,andmanyothertypesofpressuregaugesarezero
referencedtoatmosphericpressure,whichmeansthattheymeasurethepressureaboveatmosphericpressure
(whichisaround1bar)thisisgaugepressureandisoftenreferredtoinwritingasbargorbar(g),spokenas
"bargauge".Incontrast,absolutepressuresarezeroreferencedtoacompletevacuumandwhenexpressedin
barsareoftenreferredtoasbaraorbar(a).Thus,theabsolutepressureofanysystemisthegaugepressureof
thesystemplusatmosphericpressure.

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IntheUnitedStates,wherepressuresareoftenexpressedinpoundspersquareinch(symbolpsi),gauge
pressuresarereferredtoaspsigandabsolutepressuresarereferredtoaspsia.Gaugepressureisalso
sometimesspelledasgagepressure.
Sometimes,thecontextinwhichthewordpressureisusedhelpstoidentifyitasmeaningeithertheabsolute
orgaugepressure.However,forbestpractice,wheneverapressureisexpressedinanyunits(bar,Pa,psi,atm,
etc.),itshouldbedenotedinsomemannerasbeingeitherabsoluteorgaugepressuretoavoidanypossible
misunderstanding.Onerecommendedwayofdoingsoistospelloutwhatismeant,forexampleasbargauge
orkPaabsolute.[9]

Seealso
Centimetreofwater
Conversionofunits
Metricprefix
Ordersofmagnitude(pressure)

References
ThisarticleincorporatesmaterialfromtheCitizendiumarticle"Bar(unit)",whichislicensedunderthe
CreativeCommonsAttributionShareAlike3.0UnportedLicensebutnotundertheGFDL.
1. InternationalBureauofWeightsandMeasures(2006),TheInternationalSystemofUnits(SI)(PDF)(8thed.),
p.127,ISBN9282222136.
2. SirWilliamNapierShaw(http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/Cambridge/entries/061/SirWilliamNapierShaw.html)
3. BritishStandardBS350:2004ConversionFactorsforUnits
4. NISTSpecialPublication1038,Sec.4.3.2NISTSpecialPublication811,2008edition,Sec.5.2
5. InternationalAstronomicalUnionStyleManual.Comm.5inIAUTransactionsXXB,1989,Table6
6. EnvironmentCanadaWeatherMap(http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/jet_stream/index_e.html)
7. WeatherEnvironmentCanada(http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/canada_e.html)
8. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0005/000598/059832eb.pdf
9. FAQ(http://www.npl.co.uk/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.1160)(fromthewebsiteoftheNationalPhysics
Laboratory,UnitedKingdom)

Externallinks
OfficialSIwebsite:Table8.NonSIunitsacceptedforusewiththeSI
(http://www.bipm.org/en/publications/sibrochure/table8.html)

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1Pa

Bar(unit)Wikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Pressureunits
Technical
Standard
atmosphere
atmosphere

Torr

Poundsper
squareinch

(Torr)

(psi)

Pascal

Bar

(Pa)

(bar)

(at)

(atm)

1N/m2

105

1.0197 105

9.8692 106

1.0197

0.986 92

750.06

14.503 77

7.5006 103 1.450 377 104

100kPa
1
bar

105

106dyn/cm2

1at 0.980 665 105

0.980 665

1kp/cm2

0.967 8411

735.5592

14.223 34

1
5
atm 1.013 25 10

1.013 25

1.0332

760

14.695 95

1/760atm

1
Torr

133.3224

1psi

6.8948 103

1.333 224 103 1.359 551 103 1.315 789 103

6.8948 102

7.030 69 102

6.8046 102

1mmHg
51.714 93

1.933 678 102

1lbF/in2

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