The purpose of this course is to show beautiful surprises and instructive paradoxes in a maximal diversity of fluid phenomena, and to cultivate intuition with minimal models. Often I perform in-class demos. The lectures will suggest somewhat more open problems than time and energy allow. Everyone is encouraged to attend/audit, and graduate students (excluding coterm master's students) are automatically permitted to enroll for credit. If undergraduates (including coterm master's students) wish to enroll, however, they must first pass a test covering basic mathematics plus mechanics: contact the instructor within the first 4 days of the quarter (i.e. by Thursday 8 January 2026) to arrange a date/time for the test.
3 units · Letter or Credit/No Credit
The purpose of this course is to show beautiful surprises and instructive paradoxes in a maximal diversity of fluid phenomena, and to cultivate intuition with minimal models. Often I perform in-class demos. The lectures will suggest somewhat more open problems than time and energy allow. Everyone is encouraged to attend/audit, and graduate students (excluding coterm master's students) are automatically permitted to enroll for credit. If undergraduates (including coterm master's students) wish to enroll, however, they must first pass a test covering basic mathematics plus mechanics: contact the instructor within the first 4 days of the quarter (i.e. by Thursday 8 January 2026) to arrange a date/time for the test.
Offered in Winter 2027 at Stanford University.