What is Fluid Mechanics?

Matter in the fluid state is endlessly deformable. One would expect then that motions of fluids are highly responsive to the particular geometry of the boundaries and sensitive to small, even minute, disturbances such as are inevitably present, even when they may be below the threshold of our ability to observe them. This sensitive dependence on initial conditions, boundary conditions, and external forcing characterizes nearly all of the problems concerning fluid motion of interest in science, engineering and technology. The result of this sensitivity is motion of exquisite spatial and temporal complexity. Understanding these flows involves close collaboration between theory and experiment, mathematical modeling and analysis of nonlinear chaotic systems, and large scale numerical computations. Because fluids are everywhere, and because fluid motion provides the principal way by which mass and heat can be transported, fluid mechanics is a key discipline in a vast array of technological and scientific questions.

Fluid Mechanics is taught in Applied Mathematics departments; Physics departments; Mathematics departments as well as in all departments dealing with Earth and Atmospheric sciences. Most engineering schools teach Fluid Mechanics in Civil and Chemical engineering departments, as well as in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering departments.

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