Joseph Valentin Boussinesq

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Joseph Valentin Boussinesq (born March 13, 1842 in Saint-André-de-Sangonis (Hérault département), died February 19, 1929 in Paris) was a French mathematician and physicist who made significant contributions to the theory of hydrodynamics, vibration, light, and heat.

John Scott Russell experimentally observed his great solitary wave of translation in 1834 and reported it during the 1844 Meeting of the British Association for the advancement of science. Subsequently this was developed into the modern physics of solitons. In 1871, Boussinesq published the first mathematical theory to support Russell's experimental observation. In 1876, Lord Rayleigh published his mathematical theory to support Russell's experimental observation. At the end of his paper^[1], Lord Rayleigh admitted that Boussinesq's theory came before his.

In 1897 he published Théorie de l' écoulement tourbillonnant et tumultueux des liquides, a work that greatly contributed to the study of turbulence and hydrodynamics.

The word "turbulence" is owed in large part to Boussinesq. Boussinesq was intrigued by the recent work pursued in Scotland by Osborne Reynolds, who talked about "sinuous motion" and wrote a paper using the most expressive phrase "écoulement tourbillonnant et tumultueux". This was abridged by one of his followers to "régime turbulent", hence the word turbulence.

[edit] See also

Further information: Boussinesq approximation

• Boussinesq approximation (buoyancy) for buoyancy-driven flows for small density differences in the fluid
• Boussinesq approximation (water waves) for long waves propagating on the surface of a fluid layer under the action of gravity
• Turbulence modeling and eddy viscosity for the Boussinesq approximation resulting in the use of an eddy viscosity to model the turbulence Reynolds stresses

[edit] Books by Joseph Valentin Boussinesq

• Théorie de l'écoulement tourbillonnant et tumultueux des liquides dans les lits rectilignes a grande section (vol.1) (Gauthier-Villars, 1897)
• Cours d'analyse infinitésimale à l'usage des personnes qui étudient cette science en vue de ses applications mécaniques et physiques Tome 1, Fascicule 1 (Gauthier-Villars et fils, 1887-1890)
• Cours d'analyse infinitésimale à l'usage des personnes qui étudient cette science en vue de ses applications mécaniques et physiques Tome 1, Fascicule 2 (Gauthier-Villars et fils, 1887-1890)
• Cours d'analyse infinitésimale à l'usage des personnes qui étudient cette science en vue de ses applications mécaniques et physiques Tome 2, Fascicule 1 (Gauthier-Villars et fils, 1887-1890)
• Cours d'analyse infinitésimale à l'usage des personnes qui étudient cette science en vue de ses applications mécaniques et physiques Tome 2, Fascicule 2 (Gauthier-Villars et fils, 1887-1890)
• Théorie analytique de la chaleur Volume 1 (Gauthier-Villars, 1901-1903)
• Théorie analytique de la chaleur Volume 2 (Gauthier-Villars, 1901-1903)
• Leçons synthétiques de mécanique générale servant d'introduction au cours de mécanique physique de la Faculté des sciences de Paris (Gauthier-Villars, 1889)
• Application des potentiels à l'étude de l'équilibre et du mouvement des solides élastiques (Gauthier-Villars,1885)

[edit] Notes