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The study of hydrodynamic stability aims to find out if a given flow is stable or unstable, and if so, how these instabilities will cause the development of turbulence. [1] The foundations of hydrodynamic stability, both theoretical and experimental, were laid most notably by Helmholtz , Kelvin , Rayleigh and Reynolds during the nineteenth ...
The simplest kind of an orbit is a fixed point, or an equilibrium. If a mechanical system is in a stable equilibrium state then a small push will result in a localized motion, for example, small oscillations as in the case of a pendulum. In a system with damping, a stable equilibrium state is moreover asymptotically stable. On the other hand ...
In chemistry, chemical stability is the thermodynamic stability of a chemical system, in particular a chemical compound or a polymer. [1]Chemical stability may also refer to the shelf-life of a particular chemical compound; that is the duration of time before it begins to degrade in response to environmental factors.
This figure represents the evolution of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability from small wavelength perturbations at the interface (a) which grow into the ubiquitous mushroom shaped spikes (fluid structures of heavy into light fluid) and bubbles (fluid structures of light into heavy fluid) (b) and these fluid structures interact due to bubble merging and competition (c) eventually developing into ...
Near an unstable equilibrium, any system will be sensitive to noise, initial conditions and system parameters, which can cause it to develop in one of multiple divergent directions. In economics and social sciences, path dependence gives rise to divergent directions of development.
A simple example of such a system is the case of a bathtub with the tap running but with the drain unplugged: after a certain time, the water flows in and out at the same rate, so the water level (the state variable Volume) stabilizes and the system is in a steady state. The steady state concept is different from chemical equilibrium.
A stationary object (or set of objects) is in "static equilibrium," which is a special case of mechanical equilibrium. A paperweight on a desk is an example of static equilibrium. Other examples include a rock balance sculpture, or a stack of blocks in the game of Jenga, so long as the sculpture or stack of blocks is not in the state of collapsing.
A typical example of a differential equation with a saddle-node bifurcation is: = +. Here is the state variable and is the bifurcation parameter.. If < there are two equilibrium points, a stable equilibrium point at and an unstable one at +.