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Dr David Pritchard, University of Strathclyde
Tuesday 02 July 2024, 15:00-16:00
Making waves on the "mathematical canal"
- đ¤ Speaker: Dr David Pritchard, University of Strathclyde
- đ Date & Time: Tuesday 02 July 2024, 15:00 - 16:00
- đ Venue: Open Plan Area, Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows, Madingley Rise CB3 0EZ
Abstract
John Scott Russell’s discovery of solitary waves on the Union Canal in 1834 is one of the most famous anecdotes in fluid mechanics, retold in many textbooks and commemorated in the name of a bridge. But what research programme was Russell involved in, what were the results, and how closely is it connected to the world’s first fatal motor-vehicle accident?
Drawing on contemporary records as well as more recent scholarship reveals the tensions in the background to both Russell’s experiments and his multiple versions of the discovery story, and helps us to reconstruct a complicated and sometimes shady episode at the interface of science, engineering, and industry.
Series This talk is part of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows (IEEF) series.
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