UNDERSTANDING HYDRAULICS
Using hydraulics (or fluid power) is a complex area of science. Whether it’s used in your workplace or not, hydraulics are everywhere, from the brakes inside your car to farming equipment. It can be complicated to understand, so we’ve put together a brief guide to understanding where this science came from and how hydraulic power works. Whether you work with hydraulics, wish to pursue a career in an industry that uses them or need help understanding it for a school science test coming up, our blog can hopefully help. BRIEF HISTORY In short, hydraulics is the power of “fluid in motion” and fluid in motion has been a powerful source of energy for thousands of years. Water was used to turn wheels and push levers but evolved from this into fluid power that would pressurise fluids to produce powerful forces. In the 1600s, a physicist named Blaise Pascal realised that pressure on a confined fluid exerted an equal force in all directions, and those forces could potentially be ha...