E276 -- Dilucidationes de resistentia fluidorum

(Clarifications into fluid resistance)


Summary:
(based on Clifford A. Truesdell's introduction to Opera Omnia Series II, Volume 12)
This paper is notable for Euler's remarks on the cavitation that arises from the negative pressure that occurs in incompressible fluids. He shows that "the common rule of resistance rests on the false hypothesis of the analogy to impact solids." Euler also tries to apply hydrodynamics, especially the Bernoulli equation for stream-lines, to the problem of resistance, perhaps uniting the physical discussion of resistance, the stepwise integration method, and an attack on the general equations of a plane steady flow. Moreover, he attempts to characterize the possible stream-line patterns for a perfect incompressible fluid in plane steady flow, not necessarily a potential flow. This result remained for many decades the "only non-trivial exact solution of the hydrodynamical equations that could be given a reasonably simple interpretation."

According to C. G. J. Jacobi, a treatise with this title was read to the Berlin Academy on April 8, 1756.

According to the records, it was presented to the St. Petersburg Academy on January 13, 1757.

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