Lectures on Theoretical Physics, Volume 4

Take anything in the universe, put it in a box, and heat it up. Regardless of what you start with, the motion of the substance will be described by the equations of fluid mechanics. This remarkable universality is the reason why fluid mechanics is important. The key equation of fluid mechanics is the Navier-Stokes equation. This textbook starts with the basics of fluid flows, building to the Navier-Stokes equation while explaining the physics behind the various terms and exploring the astonishingly rich landscape of solutions. The book then progresses to more advanced topics, including waves, fluid instabilities, and turbulence, before concluding by turning inwards and describing the atomic constituents of fluids. It introduces ideas of kinetic theory, including the Boltzmann equation, to explain why the collective motion of 1023 atoms is, under the right circumstances, always governed by the laws of fluid mechanics. Read more