by 86rocco1 » Thu Aug 20, 2009 10:55 am
Normally an inch of rise isn't an inch. For distilled water (or any fluid with 1.0 s.g.), one inch of rise equals one inch + the amount of drop in the reservoir. But in your case, since the surface area of the reservoir is so big compared to that of the the tube, the drop in the reservoir will be negligible and you can happy pretend that an inch of rise is indeed an inch of pressure.
Now, if you're using a fluid other than water, you need to take the specific gravity of the fluid into account. in the case of Marvel mystery oil the specific gravity is 0.876. So, in your manometer with a 1000:1 reservoir to tube ratio, a one inch rise of MMO would be something like 0.8769 inches of pressure.