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Dr Faustus of Modern Physics - Department of Speech, Music and ...

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38.5. VON KARMAN 179<br />

work aimed at advancing, extending, <strong>and</strong> applying boundary layer theory has<br />

increased exponentially.<br />

• Such work has created lifetime careers for a large number <strong>of</strong> fluid dynamicists<br />

<strong>and</strong> aerodynamicists.<br />

38.5 Von Karman<br />

• Pr<strong>and</strong>tl, an engineer by training, was endowed with rare vision for the underst<strong>and</strong>ing<br />

<strong>of</strong> physical phenomena <strong>and</strong> unusual ability in putting them into<br />

relatively simple mathematical form.<br />

• His control <strong>of</strong> mathematical method <strong>and</strong> tricks was limited.<br />

• But his ability to establish systems <strong>of</strong> simplified equations which expressed<br />

the essential physical relations <strong>and</strong> dropped the nonessentials was unique,<br />

I believe, even when compared with his great predecessors in the field <strong>of</strong><br />

mechanics - men like Leonhard Euler <strong>and</strong> d’Alembert.<br />

Figure 38.1: Pr<strong>and</strong>tl inspecting the The Ho III 1938 Rhön Contest Challenger<br />

.

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