eli5: Why do pressure gauges have different units? Why aren’t all gauges standardized to one unit like bar or Pa.

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eli5: Why do pressure gauges have different units? Why aren’t all gauges standardized to one unit like bar or Pa.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

It *should* be standardized to Pascals. Just like all lengths should be standardized in meters. Two reasons it hasn’t happened:

1. Mostly inertia. Different countries and different disciplines have used a unit historically, and see no reason to change.
2. Sometimes units for very large or very small amounts make comparisons easier to grasp. Distance to stars could be expressed in petameters, but light years are simpler to wrap one’s mind around.

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