To understand the relationship between force, pressure, and area and the implications of Pascal's law. A fluid at rest exerts a normal force on the surfaces that it contacts. For a given surface, the average pressure on that surface is pavg=FA, where F is the normal force and A is the area of the surface. The pressure at a point in the fluid can be defined by taking the limit of this ratio as the area approaches zero. In a fluid at rest, the pressure at any point is the same in every direction. This is known as Pascal's law. When the weight of the fluid can be neglected, Pascal's law implies that the pressure at any point in a fluid at rest is the same. A hydraulic jack is a device that takes advantage of this equal pressure to allow a small force to be magnified to a much larger force. A simplified schematic of a jack is shown in (Figure 1)