2566: Decorative Constants

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Decorative Constants

Title text: Arguably, the '1/2' in the drag equation is purely decorative, since drag coefficients are already unitless and could just as easily be half as big. Some derivations give more justification for the extra 1/2 than others, but one textbook just calls it 'a traditional tribute to Euler and Bernoulli.'

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a DECORATIVE BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

Transcript

[A small panel only with text. Written as an excerpt from a mathematical text book. Begins with a number for an equation, then follows the equation written in larger letters and symbols. And below are explanations of each term in the equation.]

Eq. 4-15

T = Dm₀(r_out - r_in)^{mu(bar)</subp</big>}

T: Net rate

m₀: Unit mass

(r_out-r_in): Flow balance

D, mu(bar): Decorative

[Caption below the panel:]

Math tip: if one of your equations ever looks too simple, try adding some purely decorative constants.

{{comic discussion}