section_path: Measurement/Relative versus absolute measurement
section_name: Relative versus absolute measurement
paragraph_text: Relative versus absolute measurement
  
  Vacuum is measured in units of pressure, typically as a subtraction relative to ambient atmospheric pressure on Earth. But the amount of relative measurable vacuum varies with local conditions. On the surface of Venus, where ground-level atmospheric pressure is much higher than on Earth, much higher relative vacuum readings would be possible. On the surface of the Moon with almost no atmosphere, it would be extremely difficult to create a measurable vacuum relative to the local environment.
  
  Similarly, much higher than normal relative vacuum readings are possible deep in the Earth's ocean. A submarine maintaining an internal pressure of 1 atmosphere submerged to a depth of 10 atmospheres (98 metres; a 9.8-metre column of seawater has the equivalent weight of 1 atm) is effectively a vacuum chamber keeping out the crushing exterior water pressures, though the 1 atm inside the submarine would not normally be considered a vacuum.
  
  Therefore, to properly understand the following discussions of vacuum measurement, it is important that the reader assumes the relative measurements are being done on Earth at sea level, at exactly 1 atmosphere of ambient atmospheric pressure.