Stokes' law (viscous drag)
Ley de Stokes (fricción viscosa)
- Date
- 1851 · confidence high
- Place
- Cambridge, England
- Credited to
- George Gabriel Stokes
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
By solving the Stokes flow limit for small Reynolds numbers from the Navier–Stokes equations, Stokes obtained the drag force a viscous fluid exerts on a sphere moving through it (F=6πμRv).
What it led to
- Measurement of fluid viscosity and the electron's charge (Millikan's oil-drop experiment)
- Study of particle sedimentation and the suspension of water droplets in clouds