Does pressure increase equally with water depth?
To be precise, pressure increase is not perfectly linear, but depends on the density of the fluid as a function of height, in addition to the strength of the force field the fluid is being subjected to. Pressure is a scalar property: if you submerge a balloon in water, the balloon will feel force from all directions perpendicular to the surface area (fluids also exert “shear” stresses which are like pressure except that they pull a surface in a certain direction). Because of this, the pressure at a certain height over a certain area is given by the amount of force required to keep the water above from falling, assuming the fluid is in a steady state (the bucket could be sloshing around). If the pressure weren’t uniform across a certain height, then there would be a gradual difference in force over two different positions, so that there would be a net acceleration of the fluid.
