Millimeters Of Mercury to Pascals (mmHg to Pa)

1 millimeter of mercury equals 133.3223874 pascals (rounded).

How to convert millimeters of mercury to pascals

To convert millimeters of mercury to pascals, multiply the number of millimeters of mercury by 133.3223874. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply pascals by 0.007500615758 (rounded).

pascals = millimeters of mercury × 133.3223874

Example: 10 millimeters of mercury = 1,333.223874 pascals.

About these units

Millimeter Of Mercury (mmHg)

ScientificCurrent unit

About 133.322 pascals, the pressure from a 1 mm column of mercury. Blood pressure is still reported in mmHg.

Where the torr honors a person, the millimeter of mercury describes a gauge. It is a manometric unit: originally the pressure from a mercury column 1 mm tall, which means it depends on an assumed fluid density and on gravity. Mercury manometers were among the first accurate pressure gauges, and 17th-century experiments by Torricelli and then Pascal, whose mercury stood at about 23 inches on a mountaintop against about 26 at its base, showed that air has weight and that pressure drops with altitude.

To remove the ambiguity, mmHg is now fixed at exactly 133.322387415 Pa, using a conventional mercury density of 13,595.1 kg per cubic meter and standard gravity. The torr, defined as one 760th of a standard atmosphere, differs from it by only about 0.000015 percent.

Mercury is toxic and its readings vary with temperature and local gravity, so mercury gauges are now used less, and the unit's use is discouraged. Medicine nonetheless keeps it, especially for blood pressure, which is reported relative to atmospheric pressure, and hypertension guidelines in the US and Europe still use it.

1 millimeter of mercury = 133.3223874 pascals (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Millimetre of mercury; Wikipedia: Torr; Wikipedia: Blaise Pascal

Pascal (Pa)

Metric (SI)Current unit

The SI unit of pressure: one newton per square meter. A very small unit; atmospheric pressure is about 101,325 Pa.

Blaise Pascal never saw a pascal, because the name was adopted by the 14th CGPM in 1971 for the newton per square meter. He did, however, earn the honor. In 1647 he published experiments on the vacuum, and on 19 September 1648 his brother-in-law Florin Périer carried a mercury barometer up the Puy de Dôme near Clermont, where the column stood at about 23 inches against about 26 at the base. Pascal had reasoned that air pressure should fall with altitude, and the result confirmed it.

One pascal is a tiny pressure, so the unit is mostly met with prefixes. Standard atmospheric pressure is 101,325 Pa, a typical sea-level reading is about 1,013 hPa, and the threshold of hearing in air is taken as a reference pressure of 20 micropascals. Building airtightness tests, in contrast, are run at 50 Pa.

Pascal is also remembered for hydrostatics, where he showed that pressure depends on height difference rather than the weight of the fluid, and for the hydraulic press.

The pascal is the reference unit for pressure on this site.

Sources: Wikipedia: Pascal (unit); Wikipedia: Blaise Pascal

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