Copper units of pressure
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Copper units of pressure or CUP, and the related lead units of pressure or LUP, are terms applied to pressure measurements used in the field of internal ballistics for the estimation of chamber pressures in firearms. These terms were adopted by convention to indicate that the pressure values were measured by copper crusher and lead crusher gauges respectively. In recent years, they have been replaced by the adoption of more modern piezoelectric pressure gauges that more accurately measure chamber pressures and generally give significantly higher pressure values. This nomenclature was adopted to avoid confusion and the potentially dangerous interchange of pressure values and standards made by different types of pressure gauges. For example, it makes little sense to describe a maximum pressure as 300 MPa,[citation needed] and in case the pressure has been measured according to the CUP procedure it should be denoted as 300 MPa (CUP).[dubious ā discuss]
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Pressure is a fundamental physical parameter that is defined as force divided by area. The unit of pressure in the avoirdupois system is pound-force per square inch, while the unit of pressure in the modern SI system is pascal (equivalent to newton per square meter). A chamber pressure measured with a copper crusher gauge would therefore be expressed in psi (CUP) in the British Imperial system and United States Customary system, bar (CUP) in the metric system, and MPa (CUP) in the SI system.[clarification needed]