Explain the hydrostatic paradox.

(N/A) The hydrostatic paradox states that the pressure at any point in a liquid depends only on the depth of the point below the free surface and the density of the liquid,and is independent of the shape or cross-sectional area of the containing vessel.
Consider several vessels of different shapes connected at the bottom by a horizontal pipe,as shown in the figure.
When water is poured into the system,it fills all the vessels to the same horizontal level,regardless of the different shapes or the different volumes of water they contain.
This observation is paradoxical because one might expect that vessels with larger volumes would exert more pressure at the bottom. However,the pressure at the bottom of each vessel is identical because the pressure depends only on the height $h$ of the liquid column $(P = P_a + \rho gh)$,where $P_a$ is atmospheric pressure,$\rho$ is the density of the liquid,$g$ is the acceleration due to gravity,and $h$ is the depth.