An electric dipole has equal and opposite charges separated by a small vector from negative to positive, with electric dipole moment . More generally, a localized neutral distribution has , independent of origin. At distances large compared with its size, the leading nonzero term in the multipole expansion is
The field points along on either axial side and opposite in the equatorial plane; its axial magnitude is twice the equatorial magnitude at equal radius. Near the charges the finite-charge expression must replace the far-field approximation.
A permanent dipole in an externally imposed slowly varying electrostatic field has interaction energy , torque and force for fixed . A uniform field aligns it but gives no net force. For a linearly induced dipole , the formation-inclusive energy is , not : the moment itself grows while the field is applied. Dipole density gives electric polarization, whose bound charges are and .
In charge- and current-free vacuum, Maxwell equations reduce to
Taking a curl and using gives
and the same wave equation for . For a plane wave , , and . Thus the fields are transverse, mutually perpendicular and in phase; polarization describes the electric-field trajectory at a fixed point.
The energy density and Poynting vector are
For a linearly polarized sinusoid with peak electric amplitude , the mean intensity is . Electromagnetic momentum density is ; normal absorption produces radiation pressure , while ideal retroreflection doubles it. Linear superposition permits interference and standing waves, whose local electric and magnetic fields need not have the traveling-plane-wave equality point by point.
A fluid is described on a continuum scale by density, pressure and velocity fields. An Eulerian field is measured at fixed position; a material element changes at rate . mass conservation requires
For incompressible flow this becomes . A streamline is instantaneously tangent to velocity, whereas a pathline follows a particle through time; they coincide in a steady flow but need not in an unsteady one.
For an ideal inviscid fluid, pressure and body forces give the Euler equation. In the constant-density gravitational case,
A stationary impermeable boundary requires zero normal velocity, but inviscid theory does not impose no slip. Taking its steady projection along a streamline gives . If the flow is also irrotational in the connected region, that constant is shared between streamlines. Inviscid does not mean irrotational: rotating ideal-fluid flows are possible. A velocity potential exists locally for an irrotational field, and in incompressible flow it obeys Laplace's equation. The Bernoulli assumptions must be checked before converting a pressure difference into a speed.[ref]
Real fluids transmit shear stress. An incompressible Newtonian fluid with constant dynamic viscosity obeys
The constitutive shear stress is proportional to strain rate, and stationary solid boundaries usually impose no slip. viscosity diffuses vorticity and converts organized mechanical energy into heat; its local dissipation is nonnegative. It cannot generally be included merely by changing the constant in a lossless Bernoulli equation.
In a long straight circular tube, steady fully developed laminar flow has
This Hagen-Poiseuille equation follows by balancing the axial pressure gradient with viscous shear and setting . The parabolic profile, the fourth-power radius sensitivity and the pumping power are experimentally distinct consequences. Entrance regions, rough walls, non-Newtonian response or a changing temperature require additional modelling.
The Reynolds number compares inertia with viscosity. Small values favor creeping-flow balances; high values permit thin boundary layers, separation and turbulence, although transition depends on geometry and perturbations, not one universal critical number. At high Reynolds number an outer flow can be approximately inviscid while near-wall viscosity still determines drag. This resolves why a zero-drag ideal potential-flow model cannot predict the resistance of an ordinary moving body. In turbulent flow, fluctuating Reynolds stresses redistribute momentum and increase the required pressure drop; averaging the equations introduces closure requirements.
A controlled tube experiment measures pressure difference and collected volume per time while changing forcing. Use tracers or a velocity probe to test profile shape, allow sufficient entrance length, and monitor radius and temperature independently. Repeat with reversed flow and at several rates to test offsets and linearity. Dye mixing alone does not measure viscosity or establish a fully developed velocity profile. The original figure below separates a specified laminar velocity profile from an independent pressure/discharge measurement.
Keep the problem's one-mole convention throughout. The excluded-volume parameter represents the loss of available translational volume due to short-range repulsion; it is an effective covolume, not simply the literal molecular material volume. The attraction parameter reduces the pressure below its purely repulsive value. In a mean-field picture, interaction energy is proportional to pair density, so the attractive free-energy contribution scales as for one mole and the pressure correction as . Equivalently, molecular cohesive forces and the number striking a wall each supply a density factor. These parameters approximate microscopic correlations rather than measuring every pair potential exactly.
At fixed temperature, . Substituting and integrating gives the isothermal free-energy change of a Van der Waals gas
The arbitrary temperature-only term cancels. The internal-energy derivative is instead
Expansion raises the attractive internal energy toward zero. As a check, the entropy change is , so . Constant and a homogeneous branch with are assumed. If a subcritical equilibrium path crosses coexistence, a Maxwell construction replaces the unstable homogeneous continuation; the displayed integral is the direct equation-of-state result, not a claim that such a continuation is physically stable.
At the Van der Waals critical point, the critical isotherm has a stationary inflection:
Equating the resulting expressions for gives , hence
In reduced variables , the critical curve is : it decreases through with zero first and second derivative, rather than having separate liquid/gas turning points at the critical temperature.
Figure 1.
Critical Van der Waals isotherm
. Details.
Use the Euler-Bernoulli beam equation for a uniform slender elastic beam, small deflection and small slope, neglecting axial tension, shear deformation, rotational inertia of a cross-section and damping. Let be Young's modulus, the second moment of area about the neutral axis, and the mass per unit length. If density instead denotes mass per volume, replace this by . The bending stiffness is ; the small-slope curvature is . The bending and kinetic energies are
Twice integrating the variation of by parts gives the restoring load per unit length. Newton's second law therefore gives
At a pivot, displacement is fixed but slope is free; zero end bending moment gives . This also follows from the natural boundary term in the variation.
With separation of variables, gives
Choose the time normalization . Initial rest removes the sine time term, so . The spatial characteristic roots are , giving
The two conditions at give and , hence . At , addition and subtraction of give and . Nontrivial positive-frequency modes therefore have and . Thus the simply supported beam normal modes are
The zero-frequency cubic solution also vanishes under these four endpoint conditions, so is not an additional mode.
For the specified release, small slope requires . Expand the initial deflection in the Fourier sine series. Its coefficients are
Writing , the resulting motion is
Only odd normal modes occur because the initial profile is symmetric about the midpoint, and their amplitudes decrease as . The frequencies grow as , so the motion is dispersive and is not a single shape multiplied by one cosine. Nevertheless the ideal undamped solution is exactly periodic with period . At all odd-mode cosines vanish, so the bar is instantaneously straight; at it has the opposite initial deflection. The first mode dominates displacement, with third-mode amplitude only of the first.
There is initial curvature incompatibility at a moment-free beam end: the prescribed parabola has , whereas a moment-free pivot requires zero curvature at an endpoint. Therefore the data do not define a classical solution with curvature continuous through the two end-time corners. They do define a finite-energy weak solution after release of the forces or end moments that prepared the initial shape. The sine expansion represents that solution: its displacement reproduces the initial parabola, each mode satisfies the released endpoint conditions, and gives finite bending energy. One must not differentiate the initial series twice at its endpoints and assign the interior parabola's curvature there. This qualification leaves the modal displacement prediction intact.
Figure 1.
Original modal evolution after releasing a parabolic elastic beam deflection
. Details.
For the one-mole convention, is the excluded molar volume: finite molecular size reduces the volume available for translational motion from to . It is an effective excluded volume, not simply the sum of the bare molecular volumes. corrects for attractive intermolecular forces, which reduce the pressure exerted on the wall. The attraction per molecule scales with number density, and the number of affected molecules also scales with density, producing the density-squared correction. The Van der Waals equation consequently raises the measured pressure to the corresponding repulsive-gas value before multiplying by the available volume. Both corrections vanish relative to the ideal-gas terms at sufficiently low density.
Use a cold, unmagnetized, collisionless electron plasma with immobile ions. For an oscillating field proportional to , the electron displacement follows . Hence and
The induced polarization opposes the field because electron inertia changes the phase of its displacement. Maxwell's equations give transverse electromagnetic dispersion
Thus transverse waves propagate above the plasma frequency, while below it the wavenumber is imaginary and a semi-infinite lossless plasma reflects an incident wave with an evanescent interior field. In the cold electrostatic model, a longitudinal density oscillation instead has frequency .
Collisions at rate give for this time convention, introducing absorption. A background magnetic field makes the response anisotropic, and thermal motion supplies additional dispersion and static screening. The divergent zero-frequency cold collisionless formula should not be mistaken for a complete description of static Debye screening. The simple dielectric function is a dynamical electron-inertia response under stated assumptions.
In microscopic SI form, Maxwell's equations couple charge density and current density to electric and magnetic fields:
Gauss's electric law expresses electric flux from charge and reduces to the inverse-square Coulomb field for a point charge. Gauss's magnetic law gives zero net magnetic flux through every closed surface; magnetic field lines do not begin or end on magnetic monopoles in this theory.
Faraday's induction law says changing magnetic flux produces a circulating electric field. For a fixed loop, its circulation is minus the rate of change of enclosed magnetic flux, explaining the sign of induction and Lenz's law. For example, changing a primary coil's electric current changes the flux through a stationary secondary coil and induces a voltage. A moving wire also has the magnetic part of the Lorentz force on its charges; the fixed-loop field equation and the full motional-emf calculation must be distinguished.
The Ampère-Maxwell law relates magnetic circulation to conduction current and displacement current. The latter is essential around a charging capacitor: a surface cutting the lead and another passing through the gap must predict the same circulation. Taking the divergence gives
using Gauss's electric law. Charge conservation therefore fixes the consistency of the time-dependent equations. In matter, the equivalent macroscopic equations use and , free sources and constitutive relations. The Lorentz force density describes exchange of momentum with charges.
In source-free vacuum, take the curl of Faraday's law and use . Both fields satisfy
For a plane wave, , and . The fields are transverse, mutually perpendicular and in phase. Their energy density and energy flux are
This is Poynting's theorem: field energy is transported and can do work on matter. Electromagnetic radiation is a propagating, energy-carrying solution of the coupled electric and magnetic field equations.
A small displacement in a homogeneous isotropic elastic solid obeys linear elasticity. With Lamé constants and mass density , momentum balance gives
A longitudinal plane wave has displacement parallel to its propagation direction and changes local volume. A transverse wave has perpendicular displacement and produces shear. Substitution gives
An ideal fluid has no static shear modulus and cannot support this bulk transverse elastic wave. A thin rod with free lateral surfaces instead supports an extensional long-wavelength mode with speed ; its transverse contraction changes the effective stiffness, so it should not be identified with the unbounded-solid longitudinal mode.
Stress and displacement boundary conditions produce reflection, transmission, mode conversion and guided waves. Viscoelasticity and scattering can attenuate waves; finite geometry can make guided modes dispersive even when the bulk elastic constants are frequency independent. Wave speed depends on both material stiffness and the allowed deformation.
A velocity field assigns a velocity to each point. Following a fluid parcel rather than holding position fixed gives the material or convective derivative
The convective term can accelerate fluid even in a steady flow, for example as a stream narrows. Conservation of mass is ; constant-density incompressible flow has .
For an incompressible Newtonian fluid of constant density and viscosity, with conservative body-force potential per mass , momentum balance is
Neglect viscosity and assume steady flow. Dotting with an element along a streamline, or using , gives
This is Bernoulli's equation: pressure work, kinetic energy and gravitational potential energy interconvert. In a connected irrotational region under the same assumptions, is the same for all streamlines. In a rotational flow it can vary between them. Viscous dissipation, pumps or unsteady motion require the corresponding modified balance; the steady inviscid expression cannot be applied indiscriminately.
Vorticity measures local fluid rotation. For constant-density incompressible flow it evolves by
showing vortex stretching and viscous diffusion. A potential flow has locally, so irrotational incompressible motion satisfies . Boundary conditions then determine flows around simple shapes. A multiply connected region can have circulation even when its local vorticity vanishes; ideal potential flow also misses no-slip boundary layers and viscous drag.
For a Newtonian fluid, shear stress is proportional to strain rate. No-slip at solid walls produces velocity gradients and dissipation. Fully developed laminar pipe flow, for example, has
The Reynolds number compares inertial and viscous terms. Small values favour creeping-flow approximations; large values can permit thin boundary layers and turbulence, without guaranteeing turbulence in every geometry. The appropriate flow model follows from conservation laws, constitutive properties, boundaries and scale comparisons.
Capacity convention. The printed equation requires to be volumetric heat capacity, in . If “specific heat capacity” means per unit mass instead, the storage term is and both denominators in the printed equation must contain . This distinction is fixed by dimensions.
For a fixed material region , conservation of thermal energy gives the heat balance with volumetric heat generation,
Use the divergence theorem, and constant coefficients. Since the region is arbitrary,
The heat source is power per volume, while is thermal conductivity rather than thermal diffusivity.
For uniform electrical conductivity and imposed current, current density is and Joule heating is . A long, steady, cylindrically symmetric wire therefore satisfies
Integration gives . Regularity at makes , and the surface condition fixes the remaining constant. Thus the Joule-heated cylindrical wire has
Here denotes the printed radial coordinate and avoids confusing it with mass density. The centre is hotter by .
For the air boundary, the internal flux at is . Equate this to . The Newton cooling of a Joule-heated wire gives
Multiplication by circumference verifies that surface loss per length equals , the electrical power per length. The full air-cooled profile uses this surface temperature plus the same parabolic interior excess, assuming constant material properties and negligible end losses.
For cold, collisionless, unmagnetized electrons with stationary heavy ions, . Therefore and
This is the cold collisionless plasma dielectric response. For a propagating transverse wave, , so in vacuum and in plasma, where . Equivalently and for .
Converting the density gives , so and . At ,
At an interface without independently imposed surface charge or sheet current, tangential and normal are continuous, with the electron response included in the effective permittivity. Normal need not be continuous; the induced electron charge is represented by that response. In a convention treating it explicitly as a surface charge, the normal vacuum-displacement jump equals that charge instead.
For the downward transmitted wave, transversality gives . The measured field therefore has , so and . Tangential phase matching gives
For inferring incident power from a transmitted plasma field, choose and . Their magnetic fields have opposite directions. The two tangential conditions are
Hence and . Since these are peak phasor amplitudes,
This is incident power per area perpendicular to its propagation. Per area of the interface the incoming normal flux is . The reflected sign is a phase reversal, not negative reflected energy.
At , the relative permittivity is negative and there is no propagating transverse bulk wave. The field decays evanescently into the plasma and the ideal collisionless half-space reflects all incoming normal power. Collisions would allow absorption; a complex refractive index here does not by itself imply dissipative heating.
A fictitious force is a term required when writing Newton's second law in an accelerating frame; it comes from the coordinate choice rather than a new interaction. For axes rotating at constant about a fixed inertial origin,
Apply this identity twice to position to get . Moving the last two terms to the right of gives the stated Coriolis and centrifugal forces. An accelerating origin or changing rotation rate would add further terms.
A slowly rotating fluid planet follows an equipotential of gravitational plus centrifugal potential. The centrifugal potential is , most negative at the equator. An outward equatorial shift raises gravitational potential and restores the balance, producing an oblate figure. Self-gravity also changes with the shape; no flattening coefficient follows from rotation alone without a density model.
Using local north and radial-up unit vectors, the centrifugal acceleration on a stationary mass is
It points away from the rotation axis: upward and equatorward, at angle to radial up in the northern hemisphere. Its vertical fraction of gravitational force is
using a day for this approximate number. The resultant effective weight tilts equatorward relative to radial down. A plumb-defined local vertical already follows effective gravity; the component calculation uses the spherical radial vertical. A supported stationary mass of course has zero net acceleration.
For the Coriolis deflection of vertical launch and drop, retain only first order in , use effective constant , and neglect horizontal velocities in the Coriolis term as instructed. With east positive, vertical velocity gives and no northward acceleration. For launch, and the flight time is . Integrating with zero initial horizontal velocity gives
The landing is westward. The westward velocity accumulated on ascent is only recovered on descent, so the two displacement contributions do not cancel.
For release from rest at , , , and . Thus
The drop lands eastward with one quarter the launch-return displacement magnitude. North–south corrections from horizontal Coriolis coupling are beyond the retained approximation.
Figure 1.
Original centrifugal geometry and opposite east–west deflections for launch-return and drop trajectories
. Details.
For isotropic planar motion, the planar effusion flux gives an escape rate through a gap of width is , where is tray area. At fixed equilibrium kinetic energy, or fixed shape of the scaled speed distribution, . Hence halving the mass increases the rate by . This planar effusion result assumes the same spatial density and an unrestricted small opening. Strictly, average energy alone fixes , not ; an arbitrary change of distribution shape would need more information.
The macroscopic Maxwell equations, with free charge and current, are
Inside this body and . The wave magnetic field lies along ; its sign follows the local wave component. Faraday's and Ampère's laws give
Static background fields are excluded from this wave solution. The magnetic force density is along , with . For a steady periodic state, . Therefore
The result gives radiation-force density without Ohm's law. Integrating through the body gives its pressure as the boundary value of the averaged electromagnetic energy density minus its value deep inside. In both limiting cases below the latter is zero. Take as the incident electric field's peak amplitude and write .
Use turns of mean radius , including the wire radius, on a light nonmagnetic rod. With wire radius , length and density , neglecting helical pitch gives
The last expression is the transverse central moment of inertia of the uniformly distributed turns. The magnetic torque is , so the small-angle magnetic dipole oscillation obeys . Hence
The number of turns cancels. Taking the turn radius as instead gives , consistent at the accuracy of the thin-winding model. The rod's inertia, damping and lead-wire torque are neglected.
Molecules. In a dilute classical gas, collisions establish a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. The normalized speed distribution and its first two moments are
Momentum transfer to a wall gives . Translational internal energy is ; rotational and vibrational degrees of freedom add energy when thermally populated, without changing the dilute ideal-gas pressure law. Classical equipartition gives per quadratic contribution, but quantum level spacing can freeze out modes.
Only the molecules moving towards a surface contribute to its one-sided number flux:
For an effusive molecular energy flux, faster molecules are preferentially sampled, giving mean translational energy per crossing molecule and . This differs from multiplying by the bulk mean . Collisions and finite molecular interactions produce transport and departures from the ideal-gas equation of state.
Photons. All photons travel at in vacuum, so their thermal distribution is over frequency, not over a range of speeds. The two polarizations and Bose-Einstein occupation with zero chemical potential give
Here the spectral quantity is and the total energy density is . Momentum flux gives , while isotropic angular averaging gives the one-sided energy flux through a small aperture of a black-body cavity. The photon number flux is similarly .
Both pressures arise from momentum transfer, but their equations of state differ: a classical molecular gas has with fixed molecule number, whereas a photon gas has , and an equilibrium photon number that changes with temperature. Photon creation and absorption by the walls are essential to the zero-chemical-potential equilibrium description.
For a Newtonian fluid with velocity , is the component of traction on a plane whose normal points along . The opposite face has the opposite traction. The coefficient is dynamic viscosity, with units . Faster layers transfer positive momentum toward slower neighbours; the internal shear stress resists relative sliding.
Figure 1.
Shear-traction convention, Couette-Poiseuille profiles, and oscillatory viscous penetration
. Details.
Take a thin fluid element with horizontal area and thickness . The difference between its upper and lower viscous tractions is . The pressure gradient supplies . Incompressibility is satisfied because has no dependence, and the convective acceleration vanishes: . Equating net force to mass times acceleration therefore gives the relevant component of the Navier-Stokes equation:
For steady flow, integrate twice and impose the no-slip boundary condition at each plate, and . The Couette-Poiseuille flow profile is
The linear term is Couette flow and the parabolic term is plane Poiseuille flow. A negative drives flow in . Integrating the profile across the gap gives the volumetric flow per unit width,
It has units ; multiplying by the plate width gives the actual volume per time.
With zero pressure gradient, substituting gives . Select the root that decays into fluid occupying :
The other sign applies to decay in the opposite half-space. With a real wall velocity amplitude , the established periodic solution of Stokes' second problem is
The oscillation's amplitude decays exponentially and its phase lags with distance from the plate. This is diffusion of tangential momentum, not a freely propagating undamped elastic wave. Initial transients must have decayed before this purely periodic expression applies.
The fluid-displacement amplitude and the wall-displacement amplitude have the same ratio as their velocity amplitudes, since both are divided by the common . Thus for the specified amplitudes,
Using the standard approximate water density , explicitly an approximation rather than another value printed on the paper, gives and from either face of a sufficiently large plate. The viscous penetration depth varies as if a more precise water density is used. The ideal parallel-flow solution ignores finite plate edges and tank walls.
The method of images replaces induced charges or currents on a boundary by fictitious sources outside the physical region, chosen to satisfy that boundary's conditions. For example, a point charge a height above a grounded conducting plane has an image at the reflected point. The sum has zero potential on the plane, and the electrostatic uniqueness theorem identifies it with the physical solution in the upper half-space. Images do not describe a second physical charge below the metal.
For the superconducting plane, use the different boundary condition at its surface: magnetic flux cannot enter the ideal bulk. Choose the real ring moment , where , at . Its image has moment at . This superconducting plane image dipole makes the normal fields cancel at , while their tangential fields add. The image is a computational continuation; the physical field inside the plane is zero. The original sketch shows the dipole-scale field, appropriate to ; the fine field close to the ring wire is outside that approximation.
Figure 1.
Original dipole-scale field above a flux-excluding plane, with the opposite image moment shown schematically
. Details.
In the vacuum region the magnetic scalar potential is
At the surface , it reduces to . Its tangential derivative therefore gives
Both and vanish there; the sign is inward radially for the chosen positive moment. The expression is the leading dipole result, not an exact finite-ring formula at arbitrary .
For the force, calculate the external image field on the axis near the real dipole:
Differentiate this field with the image location held fixed, then evaluate at . The dipole levitation force above a superconducting plane is
directed upward. Differentiating a substituted separation while moving both dipoles in the force derivative would incorrectly double the result.
To levitate ring mass , balance this force against :
A light, thin wire and the smallest practical gap reduce current. At fixed gap and wire cross-section , gives , favouring a larger ring until the dipole-limit constraint on matters. There is no unique least current without geometric and material constraints. As a geometrically consistent order-of-magnitude example, take , , wire radius and an assumed metallic-scale density . Then and . The large value reflects the weak force in the stipulated far-field geometry. Uniformly shrinking this geometrical example reduces current as size to the power , but increases required electric current density; arbitrarily thin wire is therefore not a free optimization.
This balance estimate is not a verified superconducting design. The actual wire must carry that current without quenching, its self-field counts toward the limit, the plane must remain in its assumed flux-excluding state, and leads or supports add load. Transport critical-current measurements specify temperature, applied field and the voltage criterion rather than a material-independent limiting current.[ref]
A horizontal pressure gradient force accelerates air from higher toward lower pressure. In a rotating frame the Coriolis force deflects the flow. Away from strong friction, at large spatial scales and small Rossby number, a slowly changing flow can reach geostrophic balance:
where is the Coriolis parameter. The geostrophic wind runs along atmospheric isobars, with speed . Closely spaced atmospheric isobars therefore indicate stronger geostrophic wind when density and latitude are comparable. In the northern hemisphere lower pressure lies to the left of this wind, producing counterclockwise circulation around a low; the sense reverses in the southern hemisphere.
A curved flow also has centripetal acceleration. For cyclonic circular flow in the northern hemisphere, the gradient wind relation is
Near the ground, friction reduces wind speed and weakens its Coriolis contribution, so air crosses atmospheric isobars toward lower pressure. The simple geostrophic formula fails near the equator, where becomes small, and where rapid changes or tight curvature make neglected acceleration important. Vertically, large-scale motion is often approximated by hydrostatic balance, .
Bernoulli's principle can relate speed changes to pressure changes along an appropriate inviscid streamline, but its simple dynamic-pressure relation is not a replacement for the rotating force balance governing a broad atmospheric pressure map.