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For a tension-dominated cylindrical lipid vesicle of fixed length $L$ and volume, a real axisymmetric sine amplitude $u_q$ has stiffness $K_q=\pi \sigma L[(q{R}_0{)}^2-1]/R_0$. Fixed volume requires a mean-radius shift $-u_q^2/(4R_0)$. Stable modes have $⟨u_q^2⟩=k_{B}T/K_q$ by the equipartition theorem. Modes with $q{R}_0<1$ have the Rayleigh–Plateau instability, rather than a negative equilibrium variance. Bending modifies very short wavelengths and near-marginal modes.

For fixed volume $V$ and symmetric spreading, conservation of mass and the cusp flow between touching cylinders equation give width proportional to $t^{-1/8}$ and support length proportional to $t^{3/8}$. The source-type similarity solution has the displayed profile and $z_N=(8Va/\pi {)}^{1/4}(8\gamma t/(21\mu a){)}^{3/8}$. It is a formal outer lubrication solution; its microscopic nose requires a local description when the axial slope becomes large.

A freely floating body at rest has no supporting contact or applied holding force. Neglecting surface tension and the buoyancy of air, its upward buoyancy balances its downward force from gravity:For a body of uniform mass density ${\rho }_{\mathrm{body}}$ and total volume $V_{\mathrm{body}}$, its mass is $m={\rho }_{\mathrm{body}}{V}_{\mathrm{body}}$. Substitution into Archimedes' principle givesPartial immersion is possible when ${\rho }_{\mathrm{body}}<{\rho }_f$. A nonuniform body uses its mean mass density $m/V_{\mathrm{body}}$ instead; for a hollow body this volume must count the enclosed space that excludes water. This explains how the amount of displaced water can support a vessel whose walls alone are denser than water. ^[ref]

For the $600\mathrm{kg}{\mathrm{m}}^{-3}$ cube in water of mass density $1000\mathrm{kg}{\mathrm{m}}^{-3}$, the displaced fraction is $600/1000=0.60$: sixty percent of its volume lies below the surface. With a horizontal top and bottom, the immersed depth $d$ satisfies $V_{\mathrm{displaced}}=Ad$, soIts remaining height is $0.040\mathrm{m}$, and the buoyancy is $1000\times 9.81\times 0.000600=5.886\mathrm{N}$, exactly balancing its downward force from gravity.

A fluid element is an infinitesimal material parcel followed along a Lagrangian trajectory.

Fluid mechanics studies the motion and forces of liquids and gases. Its central simplification is the continuum approximation: replace individual molecules by bulk properties defined at every position and time. The averaging region must contain many molecules while remaining small compared with the distances over which those properties vary. A fluid element is such a small material parcel, rather than a single molecule. This connects fluid mechanics to continuum mechanics and makes calculus useful for describing flow. ^[ref]

Three basic fields are the velocity field $\mathbf{u}(\mathbf{x},t)$, the mass density $\rho (\mathbf{x},t)$ and the pressure $p(\mathbf{x},t)$. The first gives a parcel's instantaneous velocity; the second gives mass per unit volume. The pressure contributes an inward normal traction $-p\mathbf{n}$ across a surface with outward unit normal $\mathbf{n}$. Thus pressure is a stress, measured in $\mathrm{Pa}=\mathrm{N}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}$, and may vary with position even in incompressible flow. Additional viscous stresses can act tangentially. ^[ref]

The guiding questions are what must be conserved and which forces matter. Mass conservation constrains the velocity field; momentum conservation determines its response to pressure gradients, viscosity and body forces. An incompressible flow model, a Reynolds number estimate and Bernoulli's principle answer different parts of a problem. Their appeal is that a few carefully stated assumptions can determine useful quantities before the entire velocity field is known.

Let a solid cone of volume $V$ have its planar base in a plane through the origin, and orient its curved surface $C$ outwards. The vector field $\mathbf{F}(\mathbf{x})=\mathbf{x}$ has divergence three. Its flux through the base vanishes because the position vector lies in that plane and is orthogonal to its normal vector. The divergence theorem therefore gives the displayed curved-surface flux. For a circular base of radius $a$ and perpendicular height $b$, this is $\pi a^{2}b$.

A free boundary condition retains only interactions whose endpoints both lie in the finite volume and imposes no exterior spin values.

Two spin states per wavevector and parabolic dispersion give $n=2v_d{k}_F^d/(2\pi {)}^d$, where $v_d$ is the unit-ball volume. Thus $E_F={\hslash }^2[n{a}_d{]}^{2/d}/(2m)$ with $a_1=\pi /2$, $a_2=2\pi$, $a_3=3{\pi }^2$. Differentiating the cumulative count yields $g(E_F)=dn/(2E_F)$, normalized per length, area or volume as appropriate.

A free-energy density is free energy per unit volume. Its minima with respect to unconstrained order parameters determine homogeneous equilibrium states.

A product compactification supported by a four-form proportional to one factor's volume form. For the maximally supersymmetric membrane throat, the other factor is a round $S^7$ and the radii obey $R_{S^7}=2R_{\mathrm{AdS}}$. The flux links the curvature scales through the supergravity field equations.

The galaxy stellar mass function counts galaxies per stellar-mass interval and volume, often using comoving volume. Its stellar-mass moment gives the cosmic stellar mass density, while its number moment counts galaxies only if the low-mass population is integrable or truncated. It differs from the initial mass function of individual stars.

A galaxy survey measures positions and other properties of a selected galaxy sample. A spectroscopic survey uses cosmological redshift to estimate radial distance, with corrections for peculiar velocity. Its volume, selection, galaxy bias, and sampling determine which matter power spectrum modes can be inferred.

For a homogeneous isotropic point process of galaxies with mean number density $\bar{n}$, the galaxy two-point correlation function gives the excess pair probability at distinct positions. Dividing the factorial pair density by the probability of a central galaxy gives conditional neighbouring-galaxy density $\bar{n}[1+\xi (r)]$. Choosing a central location uniformly in volume does not perform this conditioning.

A gas thermometer infers temperature from the equation of state of a confined gas. The constant-volume version measures pressure; the constant-pressure version measures volume. For an ideal gas,Here $N$ is particle number, $n$ is amount of substance, $k_B$ is the Boltzmann constant, and $R$ is the molar gas constant. The reference and test states must be internally equilibrated, and $T_0$ must be known on the absolute thermodynamic temperature scale. A pressure ratio cancels the unknown gas inventory and bulb size in the ideal constant-volume limit. This cancellation is the method's appeal: a mechanical measurement transfers an absolute temperature scale between different materials. The Maxwell speed distribution and ideal gas pressure from wall collisions explain the microscopic origin of the response. ^[ref]

For an original ideal-model calculation, choose $T_0=300\mathrm{K}$, $P_0=120\mathrm{kPa}$ and $P=160\mathrm{kPa}$. Then $T=400\mathrm{K}$. These are stipulated values, not observations. Both pressures must be absolute, referred to vacuum. If the surrounding atmospheric pressure were $100\mathrm{kPa}$, the corresponding gauge pressures would be $20$ and $60\mathrm{kPa}$; their ratio is three, which would incorrectly predict $900\mathrm{K}$. A pressure difference from the atmosphere cannot be substituted into the ideal gas law.

A motivating calibration experiment. Schooley's account of the NBS/NIST work describes a helium-filled metal bulb, a capillary, a capacitance diaphragm gauge, and a mercury pressure standard. Circulating bath liquid passed the bulb assembly and platinum resistance thermometers. The resistance probes checked the surrounding temperature; gas pressure supplied the independent thermodynamic comparison. In an early series, workers filled the cleaned bulb with purified helium at the highest test temperature, checked pressure over three hours, then measured at lower temperatures and near a reference at $0{}^{\circ }\mathrm{C}$. Six filling pressures allowed extrapolation toward zero pressure. ^[ref]

To turn this principle into a readable measurement protocol, use the following controls. These steps are a proposed teaching interpretation of the cited apparatus, rather than additional reported NBS observations:

The corresponding NBS apparatus used a protective case with an outer helium layer held close to the bulb pressure, reducing pressure deformation while aiding thermal contact. Thermal expansion was measured on bulb material. Gas in the capillary remained partly outside the hot region, requiring a measured tube temperature profile and geometry. Pure working gas also mattered: contaminants that sorb on surfaces can change the freely circulating inventory. These are physical effects to measure or bound, rather than scatter that disappears by averaging. ^[ref]

For illustration, neglect connecting-tube gas and describe a uniform bulb with a dilute virial expansion in particle number density ${\rho }_N=N/V$:Here $Z=PV/(N{k}_{B}T)$ and $B_2$ is the second virial coefficient in the particle-density convention; a molar-density convention rescales the coefficient. The second relation follows exactly from the definition of $Z$ for the same $N$, and shows the signs of the corrections. If the bulb expands by $0.1\%$ and $Z=1$ at both states, the toy pressure ratio above gives $400.4\mathrm{K}$, rather than $400\mathrm{K}$. Improved expansion and helium nonideality models really changed the temperatures inferred from the 1989 NIST data: Harvey's 2023 reanalysis found expansion updates of roughly $1$–$3\mathrm{mK}$ and nonideality updates of roughly $-0.1$ to $-0.5\mathrm{mK}$. Those are reported corrections to historical results, not the much larger illustrative correction just calculated. ^[ref]

With equal corrected bulb volumes, negligible or corrected connecting-tube gas, fixed reference and test temperatures, and a dilute classical single gas phase,Repeat the reference/test comparison for several sealed fills, reducing $N$ between comparisons but keeping it fixed within each pair. The extrapolation varies density at fixed endpoint temperatures; it does not cool one fill toward zero temperature. Real gases have different finite-density corrections but share the classical ideal gas intercept under these assumptions. The limit does not remove leaks, bulb expansion, gauge offsets, or the gas thermometer dead-space correction. At very low pressures, thermal transpiration can make remote sensor and bulb pressures differ through a nonisothermal capillary; this must be corrected too. The NBS work measured this pressure correction using a separate comparison of narrow and wider tubes. ^[ref]

At $x=1$, the toy models give $T_{\mathrm{app}}=407.92\mathrm{K}$ and $388.12\mathrm{K}$, respectively, although their imposed true test temperature is the same. Their zero-density intercept is the reusable quantity. Measuring several low-density points permits a fit and a check for curvature; asserting a straight line from one finite-density point supplies neither. A practical fit must balance nonideality against increasing relative pressure error and the capillary corrections, and keep its extrapolation uncertainty.

Gas outside the uniform-temperature bulb of a gas thermometer contributes to its conserved particle inventory. An idealized calculation divides the connecting tube into small regions with volumes $V_j$ and local temperatures $T_j$. Neglect hydrostatic pressure offsets and thermal transpiration, assume a common pressure $P$ and a local ideal gas law in each region, and let the bulb have volume $V_b$ and temperature $T_b$. Adding the particle inventories givesThus even an ideal gas in a perfectly rigid sealed apparatus need not obey $P\propto T_b$: some of its particles remain in regions with other temperatures. For a stipulated bulb of $100\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^3$, a connecting volume of $1\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^3$ maintained at $300\mathrm{K}$, and bulb reference and test temperatures of $300$ and $400\mathrm{K}$, conservation of $N$ givesThese are toy dimensions and a calculated bias, not measured data. Reducing $N$ reduces both pressures proportionally and leaves this ratio unchanged: extrapolating away gas nonideality does not eliminate the connecting-volume error. Actual apparatus also requires the tube's thermal expansion, a measured temperature profile, and the pressure corrections omitted in this model.

The volume occupied by a specified gas at stated temperature and pressure.

For an isotropic fixed-length step $b$, angular integration gives the characteristic function $\hat{\psi }(\mathbf{k})=\sin (kb)/(kb)$. Independence makes the characteristic function of the sum of $N$ steps its $N$th power. Since $\ln [\sin (kb)/(kb)]=-k^2{b}^2/6+O(k^4{b}^4)$, the central scaling $k=O((b\sqrt{N}{)}^{-1})$ gives $\hat{\Phi }\to \exp [-N{b}^2{k}^2/6]$. The inverse Fourier transform isThis is a density with respect to three-dimensional vector volume, not a radial density; the radial density is $4\pi R^2\Phi$. It has $⟨R^2⟩=N{b}^2$. The approximation holds on the central coil scale $R=O(b\sqrt{N})$, not near the fully stretched finite-length boundary $R=Nb$.

For Gaussian-process latent values with mean vector $m$ and covariance matrix $K$, observed with independent Gaussian noise covariance $E$, integrating out the latent values gives the marginal distribution $N(m,K+E)$. Its density as a function of the mean and kernel parameters is the Gaussian-process marginal likelihood.

A target galaxy with geometric encounter cross section $\pi R^2$ in a population of number density $N$ has encounter rate $\Gamma =\pi R^{2}N⟨v_{\mathrm{rel}}⟩$. A Poisson process gives merger probability $1-e^{-\Gamma T}$, approximated by $\Gamma T$ only for rare encounters. Counts of distinct pairs across the whole population additionally require a factor of one-half.

Placement of geometric objects without interior overlap. A packing fraction measures how much area or volume they occupy. Circle packing and sphere packing are examples.