Questions tagged [fluid-dynamics]
The fluid-dynamics tag has no usage guidance.
11
questions
2
votes
1
answer
121
views
What motivated scientists to define quantities at a point?
We know that quantities can be defined at a point. Let's take density for instance. If we take a volume in some quantity of matter and keep on shrinking it to a point where we can assign a uniform ...
- 135
4
votes
1
answer
171
views
Reference request: modern assesement of J.H. Lambert's work on the "fluidity of sand"
While reading about different aspects of Johann Heinrich Lambert's life and work, I found many interesting side remarks about Lambert's work by different authors, though it is very hard to find modern ...
- 4,087
2
votes
1
answer
99
views
Who introduced the stream function?
I have found many different claimed answers to this question:
Wikipedia article on the stream function claims that Lagrange introduced it in 1781.
Darrigol's The Worlds of Flow says that D'Alambert ...
- 699
1
vote
0
answers
77
views
Complex potential in E227?
I have a reason to believe that Euler introduced the complex potential in his Continuation des recherches sur la theorie du mouvement does fluides, published in 1757. However, I am having hard time ...
- 699
2
votes
1
answer
115
views
Who introduced velocity potential?
Wikipedia cites John Anderson’s A History of Aerodynamics and says that velocity potential was introduced by Lagrange in 1788. However, I could trace it at least to Euler 1752, where he published his ...
- 699
3
votes
1
answer
304
views
Who introduced gravitational potential?
Some sources say that gravitational potential was introduced by Lagrange in 1773, and others say that it was introduced by Bernoulli in 1738. I sifted through Daniel Bernoulli's Hydrodynamica (...
- 699
1
vote
0
answers
103
views
Who first defined pressure?
Before learning any topic, I always find the reason of "Why definitions are created for that particular topic?"
In fluid statistics, I encountered a term called "pressure".
But I ...
- 111
3
votes
1
answer
845
views
Was Rayleigh the first to derive the drag equation?
I was reading about The Drag Equation:
$$ F_D = \frac{1}{2} \rho v^2 C_D A $$
where:
$ F_D $ is the drag force
$ \rho $ is the mass density of the fluid
$ v $ is the flow velocity relative to the ...
- 233
8
votes
0
answers
276
views
What exactly was Lagrange's "grave mistake" with respect to rotating bodies under hydrostatic equilibrium?
A comment below What would be different about satellite orbits if Earth were prolate? Would we have Sun-synchronous and Molniya orbits? got me reading Wikipedia's Jacobi ellipsoid which begins:
...
- 1,996
5
votes
1
answer
177
views
Who was the first person to describe turbulence in mathematical terms?
Here I found that:
Sixty years later, Russian mathematician Andrey Kolmogorov furthered
our mathematical understanding of turbulence when he proposed that
energy in a turbulent fluid at length $R$ ...
- 173
3
votes
1
answer
203
views
What were Gauss's contributions to capillarity?
I am writing a Wikipedia article (in a certain language) in which I intend to include a summary of Carl Friedrich Gauss's contributions to capillarity. I know that Gauss derived
the Young-Laplace ...
- 4,087