A History and Philosophy of Fluid Mechanics

by G.A. Tokaty

Through the centuries, the intricacies of fluid mechanics — the study of the laws of motion and fluids in motion — have occupied many of history's greatest minds. In this pioneering account, a distinguished aeronautical scientist presents a history of fluid mechanics focusing on the achievements of the pioneering scientists and thinkers whose inspirations and experiments lay behind the evolution of such disparate devices as irrigation lifts, ocean liners, windmills, fireworks and spacecraft.The author first presents the basics of fluid mechanics, then explores the advances made through the work of such gifted thinkers as Plato, Aristotle, da Vinci, Galileo, Pascal, Newton, Bernoulli, Euler, Lagrange, Ernst Mach and other scientists of the 20th century. Especially important for its illuminating comparison of the development of fluid mechanics in the former Soviet Union with that in the West, the book concludes with studies of transsonic compressibility and aerodynamics, supersonic fluid mechanics, hypersonic gas dynamics and the universal matter-energy continuity. Professor G. A. Tokaty has headed the prestigious Aeronautical Research Laboratory at the Zhukovsky Academy of Aeronautics in Moscow, and has taught at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is Emeritus Professor of Aeronautics and Space Technology, The City University, London.

Genres: Physics

277 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 28, 1994

Reviews

[Kyle Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite the one-stop-shop of fluid mechanics history that I had hoped for, but certainly full of many interesting pieces of that history that made it a worthwhile read. The first half of it, at least.

I think my main qualms with this book are, largely, related to omissions. First, it has all the predictable omissions common to "science history" narratives written half a century ago: white, male, and to a large extent, Eurocentric. While nobody would pretend this is a problem unique to Tokaty, this is yet another work weighed down by the lack of even a single mention of a woman or non-white man. If this were written today, I'd consider it DOA. Nevertheless, it wasn't! And Tokaty does deserve some credit for writing a historical account that actually acknowledges the importance of the Russian school of thought and their contributions to the field. Still white, but marginally less western.

The second class of omissions are related to the field bias of the narrator. As an aerodynamicist, the author largely focuses on the major development of aerodynamics, or fluid mechanics as it relates to flight. This is not a problem in-itself, but the work doesn't really advertise itself as unique to a certain sub-field of fluid mechanics. Pretty much the entire second half is dedicated exclusively to this sub-field, which means essentially any development to fluid mechanics in the 20th century isn't included unless it pertains to flight. Would have loved to learn more about the history of turbulence after Reynolds, or the rise of modern hydraulics! Even when Tokaty does include those contributions, such as when he introduces the Froude number, he says of it (paraphrasing): "it's not very important for aerodynamics, but it can matter in other fields."

The third class of omissions, which is related to the second, is just the many enormous names in fluid mechanics that get little or no mention. Stokes, Boussinesq, Saint-Venant, Darcy, Mannings, Moody, Airy, and Taylor are all very notable names that come to mind whose contributions are reduced to a few lines at most. Some of this is related to Tokaty's field bias; after all, without any mention of flow through porous media, oceanic wave theory, and little discussion of open channel flow, there's little reason for many those names to even come up. However, even for topics which Tokaty does cover, such as the development of the Navier-Stokes equations, Euler, Navier, and Cauchy (rightfully) get their own chapters, but the contributions of Stokes and Saint-Venant to those same equations are reduced to a sentence or two.

All in all, I think this book was a valuable contribution, and when its aims align with the subject, Tokaty gives a lot of great and interesting details about the field that I've never known. I definitely recommend this to fellow scientists in the field, especially for the first half of the book, which covers the fundamentals. However, if you're new to the history, or not focused on aerospace, I think there are probably better places to start.

[Katiana Kontolati · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise yet enlightening book that offers a panoramic view of the evolution of the field of fluid mechanics. I really enjoyed reading about the relationship of ancient civilizations and views of philosophers with water and fluids all the way to the formulation of the NS equations. The second half of the book focuses a lot on fluids for flight applications and as a civil engineer I would appreciate the inclusion of other topics such as hydraulics or marine/coastal engineering applications.

Overall, this book is a delightful read. It reminded me that scientific progress requires the accumulation of small, incremental steps taken over extended periods from years to centuries or even millennials. As described in the book, each discovery from analytic to experimental pushes the boundaries further. As a researcher it is essential to recognize the importance of patience, persistence and every small contribution for any type of scientific achievement.

[Raul Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Livro bom e introdutório. Gostei bastante da forma que Tokaty trouxe alguns autores russos até então desconhecidos para mim. Contudo achei que faltou explorar mais a parte filosófica dos conceitos relacionando-os com outros campos.

[Henk Massink · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dit not read everything.