Sonnet to Turbulence
Stanley Corrsin
Shall we compare you to a liminar flow?
You are more lovely and more sinuous.
Rough winter winds shake branches free of snow,
And summer’s plumes churn up in cumulus.
How do we perceive you? Let me count the ways.
A random vortex field with strain entwined.
Fractal? Big and small swirls in the maze
May give us paradigms of flows to find.
Orthonormal forms non-linearly renew
Intricate flows with many free degrees
Or, in the latest fashion, merely few
As strange attractor. In fact, we need Cray 3s.
Experiment and theory, unforgiving;
For serious searcher, fun … and its a living!