A laboratory press uses a flat circular piston of area 0.020m2 to apply pressure on a sample. The operator wishes to achieve a pressure of 3.0×104Pa on the sample surface.
(i) Ignoring any losses, calculate the force that must act normally on the piston to produce the required pressure.
(ii) In practice, only 80% of the force applied by the operator is effectively transmitted to the piston because of mechanical losses. Determine the actual force the operator must apply to achieve the target pressure.