The seller cuts the cheese by pressing the knife with a force of 50 N. What pressure does the knife blade exert on the cheese

The seller cuts the cheese by pressing the knife with a force of 50 N. What pressure does the knife blade exert on the cheese if the blade is 12 cm long and the cutting edge is 0.2 mm thick?

Given:

F = 50 Newton – the force with which the seller cuts the cheese;

l = 12 centimeters = 0.12 meters – the length of the knife blade;

b = 0.2 millimeters = 0.0002 meters is the thickness of the knife blade.

It is required to determine P (Pascal) – how much pressure the knife blade exerts on the cheese.

Find the area of the knife blade:

S = l * b = 0.12 * 0.0002 = 1.2 * 10 ^ -1 * 2 * 10 ^ -4 = 2.4 * 10 ^ -5 square meters.

Then the pressure of the knife blade will be equal to:

P = F / S = 50 / (2.4 * 10 ^ -5) = 50 * 10 ^ 5 / 2.4 = 20.8 * 10 ^ 5 Pascal (the result has been rounded to one decimal place).

Answer: the pressure is 20.8 * 10 ^ 5 Pascal (about 2 MPa).