Classroom experiments on atmospheric pressure focus largely on demonstrating its existence, often in a most impressive way. A series of amusing physics demonstrations is widely known and practiced by educators teaching the topic. However, measuring the value of atmospheric pressure(P[subscript atm]) is generally done in a rather mundane way,…

While the new movement in the teaching of physics--the study of the physics of daily life--is the keynote of the recent text-books, yet the laboratory manuals still adhere to the old method, leaving the presentation of material from everyday life to the text-book alone. It is the authors' belief that the manual as well as the text-book should be…