3.2 Stokes’ law: introduction

Course subject(s) 3. Drag force

As you have seen in the previous section, the drag force is very much dependent on the shape of an object, the relative velocity, the density of a liquid or gas and its viscosity.

Today, you are going to learn more about quantifying the drag force coefficient and the drag force for very low Reynolds numbers in particular. In these situations, you can make use of Stokes’ Law. Sir George Gabriel Stokes was an Irish pioneer in the field of fluid dynamics, living in the late 19th century. He also made major contributions in other fields such as mathematics, biochemistry and light. However, in this course, we will focus on his discovery of the creep flow theorem.

Did you ever wonder why fog droplets seem to float, but rain droplets fall? You can find out in the next set of lectures!

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