I am going to ask a simple question, for sure. The pressure with respect to the altitude is given by this formula
Where ( from Wikipedia ) In addition to this, we have L=gCp where g=9.80665 m/s2 and Cp is the constant pressure specific heat =1007 J/(Kg K) Understood and thence the above formula can be written in this simple way: P=P0(1−αh)β where α=gCp T0≈3.3796⋅10−5 m−1 β=Cp MR≈3.5081971 On the other side we learnt from the elementary physics that the formula for the pressure is also given by P=P0+rhogh Where rho is the air density (1.23 kg/m3). The question First thing first: I assumed that h=h1−h0 is that correct? I mean it's the difference between two heights (maybe from a table and the ground, just to say). Since the two formulae seems quite different, I tried with a numerical example in calculating the pressure in two points, with a difference of height about 0.18 m and I got a really similar result. Since the first formula is more technique, I think it's the correct formula but I would like to understand if one could pass from the first to the second or vice versa somehow. Also I would like to know if there are cases in which I can use only the second formula or only the first formula!