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Welcome to the official blog of the International Society of Automation (ISA).

This blog covers numerous topics on industrial automation such as operations & management, continuous & batch processing, connectivity, manufacturing & machine control, and Industry 4.0.

The material and information contained on this website is for general information purposes only. ISA blog posts may be authored by ISA staff and guest authors from the automation community. Views and opinions expressed by a guest author are solely their own, and do not necessarily represent those of ISA. Posts made by guest authors have been subject to peer review.

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AutoQuiz: What Is Hydrostatic Head?

AutoQuiz is edited by Joel Don, ISA's social media community manager.

Today's automation industry quiz question comes from the ISA Certified Control Systems Technician (CCST) program. Certified AutoQuiz-20160122-hydrostatic-headControl System Technicians calibrate, document, troubleshoot, and repair/replace instrumentation for systems that measure and control level, temperature, pressure, flow, and other process variables. Click this link for information about the CCST program. This question is from the Level I study guide, Domain 1, Calibration. Level I represents a professional who has a five-year total of education, training, and/or experience.

Hydrostatic head is another way of expressing:

a) gallons
b) pressure
c) length
d) mass
e) none of the above 

Hydrostatic head − or simply head − is the pressure that a height of liquid sitting over a given point creates at that point. Because it measures in height, the units of head are lengths-millimeters, inches, meters, feet, and the like. Engineers in the old days often referred to their steam engines as having a "full head of steam," meaning high pressure.

The correct answer is B.

Image source: Hydroelectric dam by Tomia - Own work. Licensed under CC BY 2.5 via Commons.

Joel Don
Joel Don
Joel Don is an independent content marketing, social media and public relations consultant. Prior to his work in marketing and PR, Joel served as an editor for regional newspapers and national magazines throughout the U.S. He earned a master's degree from the Medill School at Northwestern University with a focus on science, engineering and biomedical marketing communications, and a bachelor of science degree from UC San Diego.

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