A laboratory press uses a flat circular piston of area 0.020m2 to apply pressure on a sample. The operator wishes to achieve a pressure of 3.0×104Pa on the sample surface.
a. (i) Ignoring any losses, calculate the force that must act normally on the piston to produce the required pressure.
b. (ii) In practice, only 80% of the force applied by the operator is effectively transmitted to the piston because of mechanical losses. Determine the actual force the operator must apply to achieve the target pressure.