Evangelista Torricelli, one of the first to discover atmospheric pressure, once said, "We live submerged at the bottom of an ocean of the element air." The Earth's gravitational field is pulling ...

The Earth’s atmosphere, though made up of light gases, has weight. The pressure exerted on us at sea level is about 101,300 pascals (Pa) , which equals one kilogram per square centimeter .

So why aren't people crushed by Earth's atmosphere? In part, it comes down to the distribution of the pressure. Air flows around your body. Ultimately, the pressure from air "is exerted uniformly ...

The molecules from all those gases stacked on top of each other form what scientists call atmospheric pressure, which is measured by the force of the air’s weight on Earth’s surface.

At sea level, there is 101,000 N of air above every metre squared of the Earth’s surface. Atmospheric pressure decreases as the height of a surface above ground level increases. This is because ...

There are lots of great air pressure demonstrations around, but a leaky water bottle is one of the simplest. It looks impressive and costs almost nothing.