Fluid Dynamics
The study of fluids in motion"As you
probably know, there are 3
common states of matter:-Solids have a fixed shape, size & volume, and these properties are usually not easily changed, specially their volume (they are pretty much not compressible).
e.g. a block of ice
-Liquids don't have a fixed shape (they will take the shape of whatever container you put them in), but their volume is still hard to change (compression takes a lot of force). e.g. tap-water in a glass
-Gases don't have a fixed shape nor a fixed volume. They will expand (spread out) to take-up the entire space of whatever container you put them in. For example, water vapor from a boiling pot will quickly spread throughout the room.
"Since liquids and gases do not maintain a fixed shape, they both have the ability to flow; they are thus often referred to collectively as fluids."
(Giancoli, 255)
Fluid Dynamics is a branch of Physics that studies how fluids move, and when we talk about how water moves in particular, this is called hydrodynamics.
You can probably imagine how Fluid Dynamics (and hydrodynamics in particular) are very important to marine mammals (and any other aquatic animal for that matter). They live surrounded by water, which is usually moving, and they must move in it themselves; in fact, their ability to survive and reproduce often depends on how fast they can move in it and how much energy they use doing so.
Here, we explore 3 aspects of fluid dynamics that are important to marine mammals:
¤ Types of Flow
¤ Drag
¤ Bernoulli's Principle