Physics 39 (Section 2, CCN:69483),
Spring 2008
Sophomore Seminar: Elementary
Physics of Fluids
Synopsis of the
course: Physics of fluids
frequently falls through the cracks in the university curriculum. Yet,
it is very interesting, entertaining, and practically useful. In this
seminar, we will touch upon things such as waves on the surface of
water, why airplanes fly, how blood flows in veins and arteries, how to
measure a speed of a boat, how a vacuum pump works, and how
the speed of a speedboat scales with engine power, and, hopefully, many
others. Enrollment in this seminar is open to any freshman or sophomore
who is interested!
When
and where: Thursday 4:00-5:30, 395 LeConte Hall
Format: one 1.5-hr class meetings per week
(student participation strongly encouraged); discussion on individual
basis (by appointment)
Instructor: Professor Dmitry Budker
Office hours: by appointment; in 273 Birge
Course credit (1.5 units, LG)
will be given on
the basis of optional homework (0-50%) and oral presentations
(50%-100%). Each
student is required to make at least one presentation during the
semester; more presentations are encouraged! A brief one-page
(professionally formatted and edited) abstract of the presentation
should be turned in at the time of presentation. Please include the
presenter's name and the date of the presentation in the abstract. The
abstract should be composed as if it was for a talk to be presented at
the American
Physical Society
meeting, and should give your colleagues a convincing reason to attend
your talk. It should contain important keywords that will help them
identify the subject area of your research and the most important
result(s) to be presented.
Tentative course outline:
*
Viscosity
-
Fisherman/boat with viscous friction (Ryutov)
-
Motorboat speed scaling with power
-
Poiseulle flow
-
Microfluidics
- Stokes
formula for solids and bubbles
-
Superfluid
* Hydrostatics
- Bubble
floating up (Shteinberg)
* Waves
- Speed
of sound; relation to thermal velocity
- Gravity
deep and shallow water
waves, waves in a cup, what happens as the wave hits shore, capillary
waves
- Tsunami
- Kelvin
wake waves
- Solitons
* Wetting, capillary forces
- Trees
-
Cardiovascular system; size scaling
- Vapor
pressure over curved surface
* Bernoulli law
- Pipe
flow; pressure vs. diameter
- Sail
boats; rotor boats
- Why do
airplanes fly ?
* Turbulence
-
Reynolds number; scaling
- River
speed w/o turbulence (Barenblatt)
-
Terminal velocity; reason for 55 mph
-
Sumbarines and bulges
Required
text: none
Recommended texts (general):
- G.
I. Barenblatt, SCALING, Cambridge
: Cambridge University Press, 2003. (Check
at the Berkeley libaries)
- Tsutomu Kambe, ELEMENTARY
FLUID MECHANICS, World Scientific, 2007. (Check
at the Berkeley libaries)
- T.
E. Faber, Fluid
dynamics for physicists, Cambridge ; New
York, 1995. (Check
at the Berkeley libaries)
- Y. A. Cengel and J. M. Cimbala, Fluid Mechanics. Fundamentals and
applications; McGraw Hill, 2006. (An excellent
undergraduate textbook for engineers)
- B. Lautrup, Physics of Continuous Matter, IOP 2005
Physics (and not-quite-physics) bed-time reading:
- Charles H. Townes, How the Laser Happened:
Adventures of a Scientist, Oxford University Press, 1999
(ISBN: 0195122682)
- Seabrook, W. Doctor Wood, Modern Wizard of the
Laboratory. New York, Harcourt, Brace and company, 1941
(Physics Library QC16.W6 S4)
- Margarita Ryutova-Kemoklidze, The Quantum
Generation: Highlights and Tragedies of the Golden Age of Physics,
Springer Verlag, 1995 (ISBN: 0387532986)
- Segrè, Emilio. A Mind Always in
Motion: The Autobiography of Emilio Segre. Berkeley:
University of California Press, c1993. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft700007rb/
Bulletin Board:
02/01/08
Dear Class: I
would like to eventually come up with a set of lecture notes for the
class. I do not know if you have realized this already or not, but a
lot of what is happening in the class is our joint improvisation with
you (which starts with a scripted theme, but than takes off in
unpredictable directions). Therefore, having a good set (or sets) of
notes taken in class would be extremely helpful to me and
eventually to you and future generations of students who will be able
to use the compiled lecture notes. Therefore, if you keep good notes,
please give me copies and earn points when you do!
News flash!
Seminars and
Colloquia
Lecture Notes,
Viewgraphs, Electronic Tutorials
Assorted Physics-Related Links, Web Resources
Individual research topics and presentations:
- Newtonian vs. non-Newtonian fluids
- Why does it take significantly longer to fly from Europe to
US than from US to Europe (sometimes the difference is ~3 hrs)
- Is window glass solid or liquid?
- Walking on water: how do insects do it?
- Hydrofoils
- Sonoluminescence
- The physics of dripping water
- Liquid-drop model of the nucleus; nuclear fission
- The physics of tides
- The liquid core of the Earth
- Measuring blood pressure (with demo using the device
provided)
- Sonic boom
- Liquification of shaken solids (e.g., during earthquakes)
- The Coanda effect: video
- Explain what is going on on this amazing
video of shaken cornstarch solution (Faraday waves and holes)
- The Kaye effect (see this other amazing
video of "jumping shampoo")
- Ferrofluids (here is a video of an interesting effect involving ferrofluids)
- Make up your own topic !
Acknowledgment and
Disclaimer: This material
is based in part upon work supported by the National Science
Foundation. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recomendations
expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).