Waves in Fluids (Paperback)

by James Lighthill (Author) "As remarked in the prologue, it is a balance between the compressibility and the inertia of a fluid that governs the propagation of sound waves..." (more)
Key Phrases: compact source regions, generalised inertia, single compression pulse, Courtesy of the Education Development Center, Atlantic Central Water, Korteweg-de Vries (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
'All students of fluid mechanics admire the author as an outstandingly successful contributor and expositor. The present book is an excellent example of his powers and will be especially appreciated by new converts to the field. Not only will they be able to learn the basic ideas of wave motions but also how to marry mathematics and physics in a mutually beneficial way; and they can hone their technique on the large number of sensible and realistic examples included in the text.' Nature --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
James Lighthill provides readers with a thorough analysis of sound waves, shock waves, waterwaves of all kinds, and the so called internal waves (inside atmospheres and oceans) due to intensity stratification. He emphasizes the most useful fundamental ideas of wave science, including the principles of how waves interact with flows. This work on one of the great subdivisions of fluid dynamics will be invaluable to engineers, physicists, geophysicists, applied mathematicians, and researchers concerned with wave motions or fluid flows.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 520 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 2 edition (December 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521010454
• ISBN-13: 978-0521010450
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #687,938 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the very best books for waves in fluids, August 2, 2004

By	Marco G F Capozzi (Starkville, MS. USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Waves in Fluids (Paperback)

This book, althought an it's an old one, is a masterpiece.
It covers all one needs to know in order to study wave generation and propagation in fluids. The level of reading is not exactly easy. Ever since the first page, the reader is assumed to have some familiarity with the subject. It MAY appear that it is an introductory book, but it is not. The level of math understanding required to read this book is high. Everything is explained in a coincise form, but sometimes it happens that every line contains a concept, and this will slow down the speed of reading seriously...
Anyway: I like this book, and if you're not a novell, buy it.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All about Waves, April 27, 2000

By	"hirobon" (Michgan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Waves in Fluids (Paperback)

This book is a kind of a book that is seldom used as a text in universities, but everybody in the fields of math, physics, and engineering, has once read. The most valuable topic in this book would be the theory of aeroacoustics which is developed by the auther. Everything is fundamental, but you can learn a great deal about waves which you cannot from other books. This book is a prerequisite to anyone who wants to talk about waves in fluids.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Probably the best book on the subject, but a tough slog, July 24, 2007

By	Utah Blaine (Somewhere on Trexalon in District 268) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This book will be of interest to a wide range of scientists and engineers who are studying wave motion in fluids in a variety of terrestrial applications. This book is intended to be a reference for an advanced graduate student or researcher and assumes a considerable amount of background knowledge. I'd say that if you aren't comfortable with most of the material in Landau and Lifschitz (Fluid Mechanics, 2nd ed.), much of this book will be incomprehensible. I only give this four stars for two reasons. First, I found this book to be tough going. My feeling is that Lighthill's style just doesn't suit me so maybe this is a personal, not general, complaint, but I found that he does not explain things well and often obsfuscates key points. Second, I think that the first two chapters (on sound waves and one dimensional waves in fluids) are woefully inadequate. The real meat of this book is in the second two chapters (water waves and internal waves) and definitely worth the price of the book if that is your interest, but the basics of the subject were not tied together well (or clearly) in the first two chapters. This is still an introductory book in some sense (`introductory' to an advanced topic, that is). Finally, be warned that this book deals mostly with terrestrial, subsonic applications (waves in the ocean, blood flow in capallaries, etc.). I approached this book from an astrophysics perspective (i.e. viscous, compressible flows mostly) and found the book less useful.