A Theoretical Torricelli Social Barometer to Measure Social Pressure

An outline of a conceptual ‘social barometer’ is introduced, based in principle on the Torricelli vacuum (1643), wherein the balancing of the column of mercury against the weight of the atmosphere, is replaced with mercury-like human social species, confined to a mobile volumetrically confined camper or bus of sorts, is moved into and away from various massively large cities, akin to the way Blaise Pascal in 1648 had the idea to carry a Torricelli vacuum to the top of Puy de Dome mountain, to test his prediction that atmospheric pressure, specifically the ‘height’ of the mercury column in the tube, would decrease as one climbed the mountain. This should, in a predictive sense, translate to the equivalent effect that a working social barometer should show a decrease in social pressure, specifically the ‘height’ or length of the social mercury system in the social tube should decrease, as one climbs or moves away from large earth-like in social mass cities, like New York or Tokyo.

Keywords: social pressure, social barometer, large cities, social mass