October 15, 2006

Life at Low Reynolds Number "Some essential hand waving could not be reproduced."

Reynolds Number is the ratio of forces due to motion over forces due to viscosity. At high Reynolds, motion (kinetic energy) dominates and turbulence emerges. At low Reynolds, viscosity rules and everything is a lot more....relaxed. Deriving the Reynolds number. <----this link is described as an intuitive derivation.....YMMV. The 3-link swimmer

posted by polychrome 18 years ago
  • When I was taught organismal biology we started the course with a discussion of Reynolds number, leaving a group of traditionally math-phobic biology students rather befuddled for the first little while. We did get it eventually, and picked up the mantra 'size matters.' Cool link.
  • We use the Reynolds Number to determine laminar from turbulent flow in geology. Ah...I heart math.
  • "Some essential hand waving could not be reproduced." ...I miss my mathematical friends. They were so much fun to watch... sigh
  • Math hug! Yay!!!!
  • Excellent links - )))!!! The Dygnomics of Staggering When the viscosity of whisky and the density of my brain connect, I marvel that the turbulance manifests so far below my neck.
  • *marvels that he can't seem to spell turbulence, dammit!*
  • Thank you, bees! That's the only thing I've understood in this whole thread! Plus it was good.
  • <3s Lara!
  • This is really interesting. It reminds me of a nightmare I had, involving swimming in treacle away from a shark. But now I know that the shark couldn't have caught me!