Thanks, Owen,
That passage is remarkable. Everytime I read Feynman, I find that I LIKE him. Thanks for putting it before us. nIck From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Owen Densmore Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2011 2:45 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Experiment and Interpretation Nick: in the djvu books on Feynman Lectures on physics, you'll find this comment on fluids and their difficulties in the first volume. Finally, there is a physical problem that is common to many fields, that is very old, and that has not been solved. It is not the problem of finding new fundamental particles, but something left over from a long time ago--over a hundred years. Nobody in physics has really been able to analyze it mathematically satisfactorily in spite of its importance to the sister sciences. It is the analysis of circulating or turbulent fluids. If we watch the evolution of a star, there comes a point where we can deduce that it is going to start convection, and thereafter we can no longer deduce what should happen. A few million years later the star explodes, but we cannot figure out the reason. We cannot analyze the weather. We do not know the patterns of motions that there should be inside the earth. The simplest form of the problem is to take a pipe that is very long and push water through it at high speed. We ask: to push a given amount of water through that pipe, how much pressure is needed? No one can analyze it from first principles and the properties of water. If the water flows very slowly, or if we use a thick goo like honey, then we can do it nicely. You will find that in your textbook. What we really cannot do is deal with actual, wet water running through a pipe. That is the central problem which we ought to solve some day, and we have not. If you search for fluid you'll find that he does comment often on them in other contexts, and in the second volume he has two chapters on elasticity and two on fluids. Bruce can comment on the Feynman books .. I know in some circles they are considered poor but for me they are the quickest to get to the point and best at clearly discussing the topic under consideration. Feynman really does agree with your view that the more expert one is, the more able to explain clearly and with sufficient depth. He definitely was no snob! If anyone wants to see the books in djvu form, you can find them at: http://backspaces.net/temp/ -- Owen
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