Question

According to one historical account, the chinese emperor Qin Shihuang had a river of quicksilver built in his tombat Xi'an. Imagine you went swimming in mercury and were submerged at a depth of 5 feet. If you were in water instead of mercury, would the pressure on you be the same, greater, or lesser? Write a short paragraph to explain your answer to a lay person. Prove your answer mathmatically by selecting a coordinate system, simplifiying the basic hydrostatic vector equation, and then integrating. Substitute to get numericl answers for pressure in water and mercury.

Answer 1