Wiktionary
n. (context physics English) The branch of mechanics dealing with gases and liquids, either at rest or in motion.
WordNet
n. study of the mechanics of fluids [syn: hydraulics]
Wikipedia
Fluid mechanics is the branch of physics that studies the mechanics of fluids ( liquids, gases, and plasmas) and the forces on them. Fluid mechanics has a wide range of applications, including for mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, geophysics, astrophysics, and biology. Fluid mechanics can be divided into fluid statics, the study of fluids at rest; and fluid dynamics, the study of the effect of forces on fluid motion. It is a branch of continuum mechanics, a subject which models matter without using the information that it is made out of atoms; that is, it models matter from a macroscopic viewpoint rather than from microscopic. Fluid mechanics, especially fluid dynamics, is an active field of research with many problems that are partly or wholly unsolved. Fluid mechanics can be mathematically complex, and can best be solved by numerical methods, typically using computers. A modern discipline, called computational fluid dynamics (CFD), is devoted to this approach to solving fluid mechanics problems. Particle image velocimetry, an experimental method for visualizing and analyzing fluid flow, also takes advantage of the highly visual nature of fluid flow.
Usage examples of "fluid mechanics".
Then the fluid mechanics became too much for his available computational rate.
It was a demonstration of fluid mechanics, in the absence of gravity.
They would lack combustion and crystallography, but would begin their science on a firm foundation of fluid mechanics, of flows and qualitative senses.
The implications would be profound -- for chaos mathematics, for fluid mechanics, for weather control.