Stokes' law

This article is about the expression for frictional force. For the acoustics theorem, see Stokes's law of sound attenuation.
Not to be confused with Stokes' theorem in vector calculus, or Stokes shift in luminescence and Raman spectroscopy.

In fluid dynamics, Stokes' law is an empirical law for the frictional force – also called drag force – exerted on spherical objects with very small Reynolds numbers in a viscous fluid.[1] It was derived by George Gabriel Stokes in 1851 by solving the Stokes flow limit for small Reynolds numbers of the Navier–Stokes equations.[2]

  1. ^ Stokes, G. G. (1856). "On the effect of internal friction of fluids on the motion of pendulums". Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. 9, part ii: 8–106. Bibcode:1851TCaPS...9....8S. The formula for terminal velocity (V) appears on p. [52], equation (127).
  2. ^ Batchelor (1967), p. 233.