What is Bar?
Bar is a metric pressure unit equal to exactly 100,000 pascals (100 kPa or 0.1 MPa). Although not an official SI unit, bar is accepted for use alongside the International System because of its convenient relationship to atmospheric pressure — standard atmospheric pressure at sea level measures approximately 1.01325 bar. The unit was introduced by Norwegian meteorologist Vilhelm Bjerknes in 1909, derived from the Greek word baros meaning weight. Today, bar appears on tire sidewalls across Europe, in hydraulic system specifications, industrial process documentation, and weather maps reporting atmospheric pressure. In practical terms, 1 bar is the approximate pressure of a column of water 10.2 metres tall.