"The multidisciplinary field of fluid mechanics is one of the most actively developing fields of physics, mathematics and engineering. In this book, the fundamental ideas of fluid mechanics are presented from a physics perspective. Using examples taken from everyday life, from hydraulic jumps in a kitchen sink to Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities in clouds, the book provides readers with a better understanding of the world around them. It teaches the art of fluid-mechanical estimates and shows how the ideas and methods developed to study the mechanics of fluids are used to analyze other systems with many degrees of freedom in statistical physics and field theory. Aimed at undergraduate and graduate students, the book assumes no prior knowledge of the subject and only a basic understanding of vector calculus and analysis. It contains 32 exercises of varying difficulties, from simple estimates to elaborate calculations, with detailed solutions to help readers understand fluid mechanics"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 159-165) and index.

Machine generated contents note: 1. Basic equations and steady flows; 2. Unsteady flows; 3. Dispersive waves; 4. Epilogue; 5. Solutions; References; Index.

Preface -- Prologue -- 1. Basic equations and steady flows -- 1.1. Definitions and basic equations -- 1.1.1. Definitions -- 1.1.2. Equations of motion for an ideal fluid -- 1.1.3. Hydrostatics -- 1.1.4. Isentropic motion -- 1.2. Conservation laws and potential flows -- 1.2.1. Kinematics -- 1.2.2. Kelvin's theorem -- 1.2.3. Energy and momentum fluxes -- 1.2.4. Irrotational and incompressible flows -- 1.3. Flow past a body -- 1.3.1. Incompressible potential flow past a body -- 1.3.2. Moving sphere -- 1.3.3. Moving body of an arbitrary shape -- 1.3.4. Quasi-momentum and induced mass -- 1.4. Viscosity -- 1.4.1. Reversibility paradox -- 1.4.2. Viscous stress tensor -- 1.4.3. Navier-Stokes equation -- 1.4.4. Law of similarity -- 1.5. Stokes flow and the wake -- 1.5.1. Slow motion -- 1.5.2. The boundary layer and the separation phenomenon -- 1.5.3. Flow transformations -- 1.5.4. Drag and lift with a wake -- Exercises -- 2. Unsteady flows -- 2.1. Instabilities -- 2.1.1. Kelvin-Helmholtz instability -- 2.1.2. Energetic estimate of the stability threshold -- 2.1.3. Landau's law -- 2.2. Turbulence -- 2.2.1. Cascade -- 2.2.2. Turbulent river and wake -- 2.3. Acoustics -- 2.3.1. Sound -- 2.3.2. Riemann wave -- 2.3.3. Burgers equation -- 2.3.4. Acoustic turbulence -- 2.3.5. Mach number -- Exercises -- 3. Dispersive waves -- 3.1. Linear waves -- 3.1.1. Surface gravity waves -- 3.1.2. Viscous dissipation -- 3.1.3. Capillary waves -- 3.1.4. Phase and group velocity -- 3.2. Weakly non-linear waves -- 3.2.1. Hamiltonian description -- 3.2.2. Hamiltonian normal forms -- 3.2.3. Wave instabilities -- 3.3. Non-linear Schrödinger equation (NSE) -- 3.3.1. Derivation of NSE -- 3.3.2. Modulational instability -- 3.3.3. Soliton, collapse and turbulence -- 3.4. Korteveg-de-Vries (KdV) equation -- 3.4.1. Waves in shallow water -- 3.4.2. The KdV equation and the soliton -- 3.4.3. Inverse scattering transform -- Exercises -- 4. Solutions to exercises -- Chapter 1 -- Chapter 2 -- Chapter 3 -- Epilogue -- Notes -- References -- Index.

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