Flattened Fluids Help Scientists Understand Oceans and Atmospheres

Flattened Fluids Help Scientists Understand Oceans and Atmospheres

Turbulence, the splintering of smooth streams of fluid into chaotic vortices, doesn’t just make for bumpy plane rides. It also throws a wrench into the very mathematics used to describe atmospheres, oceans and plumbing. Turbulence is the reason why the Navier-Stokes equations—the laws that govern fluid flow—are so famously hard that whoever proves whether or …