What is the psi of 11500 gallons of water in a 12 x 30x6 foot pool?

Answer 1

This is a really fiendish problem, but we may have outsmarted it.

Ordinarily, the dimensions of the pool wouldn't matter, because the pressure only

depends on the depth of the water ... you always find the same pressure at the

same depth below the surface, whether you're in a pond, a lake, a bathtub, an

ocean, or a swimming pool. So our first instinct was to calculate the pressure at

6-ft down, since your pool is 6-ft deep.

But wait! Why is the quantity of water given ? Could it be that the pool is not

completely full and sloshing over the rim ?

Volume of the full pool = (12 x 30 x 6) = 2,160 cubic feet = 16,157.9 gallons.

Ah hah! The pool is not full!

Those 11,500 gallons fill it to only (11,500/16,157.9) x (6-ft) = 4.2704 feet. (rounded)

The pressure under 4.2704-ft of water is 1.841 psi(rounded)

(Using 5 psi = 11.6 ft of water, which we found somewhere on the www.)