AAMC FL Practice Exam 2026 – The Comprehensive All-in-One Guide to Exam Success!

The relationship between fluid speed and pressure in a pipeline is explained by Bernoulli's principle, which states that when the speed of a fluid increases, the pressure within that fluid decreases, assuming other factors remain constant. This principle can be understood by considering the conservation of energy in fluid dynamics.

When fluid flows through a pipeline, if the cross-sectional area of the pipe decreases, the fluid is forced to speed up in order to maintain a steady flow rate. As the speed increases, some of the fluid's kinetic energy rises, but this results in a decrease in the fluid's potential energy, which manifests as a drop in pressure. Therefore, higher fluid velocity corresponds to lower fluid static pressure.

This principle is crucial for understanding various applications in fluid mechanics and engineering, such as how pumps and turbines operate, and in predicting how fluid will behave in different systems. The decrease in pressure with increasing speed is fundamental in scenarios such as air flow over an airplane wing or water flowing through a narrowing pipe.