| Themes > Science > Physics > Fluid Dynamics > Fluid dynamics and Bernoulli's equation > Making fluids flow |
There are basically two ways to make fluid flow through a pipe. One way is to tilt the pipe so the flow is downhill, in which case gravitational kinetic energy is transformed to kinetic energy. The second way is to make the pressure at one end of the pipe larger than the pressure at the other end. A pressure difference is like a net force, producing acceleration of the fluid. As long as the fluid flow is steady, and the fluid is non-viscous and incompressible, the flow can be looked at from an energy perspective. This is what Bernoulli's equation does, relating the pressure, velocity, and height of a fluid at one point to the same parameters at a second point. The equation is very useful, and can be used to explain such things as how airplanes fly, and how baseballs curve. |
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