Use the force flux at infinity in Stokes flow. With an outward normal from a large sphere, the force on the body is . Let . The leading far-field velocity and pressure are
Their rate-of-strain tensor is
In the Newtonian fluid stress tensor , the isotropic pieces cancel. Consequently,
The second spherical moment integral follows from rotational symmetry and . Since , taking gives the Stokes drag law:
The omitted dipole contributes a surface integral of order and vanishes in this limit. The sign refers to the fluid's drag on the moving sphere.