It is also used to quantify internal pressure, stress, Young's modulus, and ultimate tensile strength.

[6] The unit is named after Blaise Pascal, noted for his contributions to hydrodynamics and hydrostatics, and experiments with a barometer.

The name pascal was adopted for the SI unit newton per square metre (N/m2) by the 14th General Conference on Weights and Measures in 1971.

In contrast, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) recommends the use of 100 kPa as a standard pressure when reporting the properties of substances.

In engineering the megapascal (MPa) is the preferred unit for these uses, because the pascal represents a very small quantity.

This applies not only to the thermodynamics of pressurised gases, but also to the energy density of electric, magnetic, and gravitational fields.

Since the introduction of SI units, meteorologists generally measure atmospheric pressure in hectopascals (hPa), equal to 100 pascals or 1 millibar.