The standard unit of pressure in the metric system is the pascal (Pa). One pascal is defined as one newton per square meter and is often used to measure atmospheric pressure, atmospheric conditions, and various engineering applications. For practical purposes, larger units such as kilopascals (kPa) or megapascals (MPa) are also commonly used. The pascal provides a means to quantify how much force is exerted over a specific area, which is essential in fields like physics, engineering, and meteorology, to understand forces acting within different systems.