Communicating_vessels
Communicating vessels
Set of internally connected containers containing a homogeneous fluid
Communicating vessels or communicating vases[1] are a set of containers containing a homogeneous fluid and connected sufficiently far below the top of the liquid: when the liquid settles, it balances out to the same level in all of the containers regardless of the shape and volume of the containers. If additional liquid is added to one vessel, the liquid will again find a new equal level in all the connected vessels. This was discovered by Simon Stevin as a consequence of Stevin's Law.[2] It occurs because gravity and pressure are constant in each vessel (hydrostatic pressure).[3]
Blaise Pascal proved in the seventeenth century that the pressure exerted on a molecule of a liquid is transmitted in full and with the same intensity in all directions.