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It’s important to understand fluid mechanics in order to make sense of Covid-19

• hilbert42 6y ago
  "Fluid mechanics is the study of how fluids move. That may sound simple, but it’s actually very complex." Right! Thus, to solve practical cases quickly there's little point in coming to grips with the complex mathematics that describe the movement of viscous fluids (that is unless it's being undertaken as an academic exercise). The fact is that the differential Navier–Stokes equations that underpin fluid mechanics are (a) very complex and (b) that often there are insufficient data points available to calculate or give a reasonably accurate picture/understanding of what it is that is being modeled. It seems to me that given the urgency of the COVID-19 problem, the most practical solution is to just do empirical experiments and then extrapolate from there. BTW, a caveat, I'm aware that there has been some recent work that supposedly improves on Navier–Stokes, I do not know whether that is relevant here or that it could be adapted effectively given the current time constraints.