If someday I may die, though it is unlikely, I hope the people in the cafés will say, ‘Dali has died, but not entirely.’ Salvador Dalí
Category Archives: Quotes
Standard k-Epsilon Model
In the last few years a number of models of turbulent heat and momentum transport have been developed in which the effective transport coefficients are related to local values of certain turbulent correlations; these correlations are computed simultaneously with the mean field variables. Models of this kind achieve significantly greater breadth of applicability than do …
Paul Richard Heinrich Blasius
At Easter 1902 I had sat my final college examination, and was now studying mathematics. This was not simple for me: Although one can see what follows from certain algebraic manipulations, why would this be done? “By mathematics, you are convicted, instead of convinced”, according to the philosopher Schopenhauer. After some time, I realized that, …
The History of the Navier-Stokes Equations
Over the course of a few years I have collected pictures, biographies, and other tidbits about the many famous people who have created, studied, and dedicated their lives to the Navier-Stokes equations. I set it to the music of Carmina Burana of the MIT Choir (Creative Commons). Enjoy!
On Theory and Experiments
Regarding computing as a straightforward routine, some theoreticians still tend to underestimate its intellectual value and challenge, while practitioners often ignore its accuracy and overrate its validity. C. K. Chu, Columbia University, 1978
Foundations of Turbulence
The mathematical formulation of the problem of homogeneous turbulence is this: Given an infinite body of uniform fluid in which motions conform to the equations and, and given that at some initial instant the velocity of the fluid is a random function of position described by certain probability laws which are independent of position, to …
On Nonsense
There is no reason to suppose that Carroll was in the slightest degree evasive in denying that he had intended his poem to mean anything at all. But, as he himself pointed out, words can mean much more than a writer intends. They can express meanings buried so deep in an author’s mind that he …
On Teaching Philosophy
You asked me how should I best teach them. Should I teach them from the point of view of the history of science the applications? My theory is that the best way to teach is to have no philosophy. We must be chaotic and confuse them in the sense that you use every possible way …
Friedwardt Winterberg
Wernher Von Braun once said that we have invented rockets, not to destroy our planet, but to explore the universe. Similarly, we may say that we have discovered thermonuclear energy, not to destroy our planet, but to advance mankind toward a peaceful, galactic culture. Friedwardt Winterberg
One Explosion Tests and thoughts on Terribleness
Trinity: the first four seconds. Oppenheimer later told journalists, “If you ask: can we make them more terrible, the answer is yes; if you ask: can we make more of them, the answer is yes; if you ask: can we make them terribly more terrible, the answer is-probably.”