A device in which a force (F1) applied to a small piston (A1) creates a pressure (p), which is transmitted through a fluid to a larger piston (A2), where it gives rise to a larger force (F2): see illustration. This depends on Pascal's principle that the pressure applied anywhere in an enclosed fluid is transmitted equally in all directions. The principle of the hydraulic press is widely used in jacks, vehicle brakes, presses, and earth-moving machinery, usually with oil as the working fluid.
Hydraulic press
- order of magnitude
- order parameter
- ordinary ray
- ordinate
- origin
- ortho-
- oscillation
- oscillator
- oscilloscope
- osmiridium
- osmometer
- osmosis
- osmotic pressure
- Ostwald ripening
- Ostwald's dilution law
- Otto engine
- ounce
- overdamped
- overpotential
- overtones
- p-type conductivity
- p.d.
- packing density
- packing fraction
- pair distribution function