hydrostatic : Idioms & Phrases

a balance for weighing substances in water, for the purpose of ascertaining their specific gravities.

an apparatus consisting of a water-tight bellowslike case with a long, upright tube, into which water may be poured to illustrate the hydrostatic paradox.
. See Hydrostatic.

noun the pressure at a given point in a liquid measured in terms of the vertical height of a column of the liquid needed to produce the same pressure

the proposition in hydrostatics that any quantity of water, however small, may be made to counterbalance any weight, however great; or the law of the equality of pressure of fluids in all directions.

a machine in which great force, with slow motion, is communicated to a large plunger by means of water forced into the cylinder in which it moves, by a forcing pump of small diameter, to which the power is applied, the principle involved being the same as in the hydrostatic bellows. Also called hydraulic press, and Bramah press. In the illustration, a is a pump with a small plunger b, which forces the water into the cylinder c, thus driving upward the large plunder d, which performs the reduced work, such as compressing cotton bales, etc.