What is a mercury barometer? Pls make this answer a long one.
Answers
mercury barometer. noun. a barometer in which the weight of a column of mercury in a glass tube with a sealed top is balanced against that of the atmosphere pressing on an exposed cistern of mercury at the base of the mercury column, the height of the column varying with atmospheric pressure.
uses
Mercury barometers are primarily used for measuring atmospheric pressure. It is a device that consists of an upside-down tube filled with mercury that is in a vessel full of mercury. The atmosphere (or the air) pushes down on the mercury in the vessel, which in turn, pushes the mercury in the tube up.
Why do we use mercury to measure pressure?
Mercury is commonly used in barometers because its high density means the height of the column can be a reasonable size to measure atmospheric pressure. A barometer using water, for instance, would need to be 13.6 times taller than a mercury barometer to obtain the same pressure difference.