When you hold a rectangular object, how does the area of the side that is resting on your hand affect the pressure and the force that the object exerts?

The larger the area, the lower the pressure. The force does not depend on the area

Explanation:

- The force exerted by the object on your hand does not depend on the area of contact between the object and the hand, but only on the weight of the object:

where mg is the weight of the object.

- The pressure exerted by the object on your hand is given by:

where F is the force and A is the area of contact between the object and the hand. From this equation, we see that when the area of contact A is larger, the pressure p exerted on your hand is lower, and vice-versa.