The question was raised in class as to what the appropriate equilibrium condition for a column of fluid at rest should be. Specifically, given we expect a hydrostatic gradient in pressure with height, whether the chemical potential must be the same throughout the column was questioned. Here are my first thoughts. In brief, I assert that the chemical potential must be everywhere identical, and that the pv term is balanced, at every height in the column, by the potential energy conferred by position in a gravitational field.

Here are some slides I made on the subject of "Pressure and Chemical Potential" for the final meeting of Prof. Zhigang Suo's ES 241 class in the Spring of 2009.