Wikipedia:
In physics, the Navier–Stokes equations, named after Claude-Louis Navier and George Gabriel Stokes, describe the motion of fluidsubstances. These equations arise from applying Newton's second law to fluid motion, together with the assumption that the fluid stress is the sum of a diffusing viscous term (proportional to the gradient of velocity), plus a pressure term.
The equations are useful because they describe the physics of many things of academic and economic interest. They may be used tomodel the weather, ocean currents, water flow in a pipe and air flow around a wing. The Navier–Stokes equations in their full and simplified forms help with the design of aircraft and cars, the study of blood flow, the design of power stations, the analysis of pollution, and many other things. Coupled with Maxwell's equations they can be used to model and study magnetohydrodynamics.
The Navier–Stokes equations are also of great interest in a purely mathematical sense. Somewhat surprisingly, given their wide range of practical uses, mathematicians have not yet proven that in three dimensions solutions always exist (existence), or that if they do exist, then they do not contain any singularity (smoothness). These are called the Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness problems. The Clay Mathematics Institute has called this one of the seven most important open problems in mathematics and has offered a US$1,000,000 prize for a solution or a counter-example.[1]
The Navier–Stokes equations dictate not position but rather velocity. A solution of the Navier–Stokes equations is called a velocity field or flow field, which is a description of the velocity of the fluid at a given point in space and time. Once the velocity field is solved for, other quantities of interest (such as flow rate or drag force) may be found. This is different from what one normally sees in classical mechanics, where solutions are typically trajectories of position of a particle or deflection of a continuum. Studying velocity instead of position makes more sense for a fluid; however for visualization purposes one can compute various trajectories.
Navier-Stokes Equations:
Greetings everyone, Today I would like to offer an interesting puzzle in the fields of mathematics, for discussion and attempted solving. A few days ago, I came across the website of the Clay Mathematics Institute. There, I found an interesting page listing seven so-called "Millenium Problems." These are seven extremely challenging puzzles, each with a prize fund of $1,000,000:
http://www.claymath.org/millennium/
So far, only the Poincare Conjecture has been solved. Remaining are the Berch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture, the Hodge Conjecture, the Navier-Stokes Equations, P vs NP, the Riemann Hypothesis, and the Yang-Mills theory. Of these, I have chosen to work on the Navier-Stokes equations:
http://www.claymath.org/millennium/Navier-Stokes_Equations/
The Navier-Stokes equations, a group of hypotheses meant to explain both turbulence and breezes, have yet to be fully understood since their creation in the 19th century. The official problem description can be found here:
http://www.claymath.org/millennium/Navier-Stokes_Equations/navierstokes.pdf
In short, the problem can be done in four different ways. All of them require a proof which will be held up to analysis for two years before announced as winning. Below, I have posted the four possible proofs:
(A) Existence and smoothness of Navier–Stokes solutions on R3. Take ν > 0 and n = 3. Let u◦(x) be any smooth, divergence-free vector field satisfying (4). Take f(x,t) to be identically zero. Then there exist smooth functions p(x,t),ui(x,t) on R3 × [0, ∞) that satisfy (1), (2), (3), (6), (7).
(B) Existence and smoothness of Navier–Stokes solutions in R3/Z3. Take ν > 0 and n = 3. Let u◦(x) be any smooth, divergence-free vector field satisfying (8); we take f (x, t) to be identically zero. Then there exist smooth functions p(x, t), ui (x, t) on R3 × [0, ∞) that satisfy (1), (2), (3), (10), (11).
(C) Breakdown of Navier–Stokes solutions on R3. Take ν > 0 and n = 3. Then there exist a smooth, divergence-free vector field u◦(x) on R3 and a smooth f (x, t) on R3 × [0, ∞), satisfying (4), (5), for which there exist no solutions (p, u) of (1), (2), (3), (6), (7) on R3 × [0, ∞).
(D) Breakdown of Navier–Stokes Solutions on R3/Z3. Take ν > 0 and n = 3. Then there exist a smooth, divergence-free vector field u◦(x) on R3 and a smooth f (x, t) on R3 × [0, ∞), satisfying (8), (9), for which there exist no solutions (p, u) of (1), (2), (3), (10), (11) on R3 × [0, ∞).
That pretty much sums it up. For further information, I have posted a number of links below:
Video Lecture:
http://claymath.msri.org/navierstokes.mov
Simplified Explanations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navier–Stokes_equations
http://www.efunda.com/formulae/fluids/navier_stokes.cfm
PDF Lesson:
http://depts.washington.edu/chemcrs/bulkdisk/chem520A_aut05/notes_Week_05_Lecture_07.pdf