Why does fluid drag switch from a speed-squared law for fast objects to a linear, viscosity-driven Stokes law for slow ones?
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What the drag force depends on
Record that drag opposes the motion, and list its dependences: the object's speed, size and shape, together with the fluid's density, viscosity and compressibility.
High-speed drag
Write the formula, identify as the cross-sectional area perpendicular to the motion and as a dimensionless shape coefficient, and record 0.47 for a sphere against 1.05 for a cube.
Stokes' Law for a slow-moving sphere
State as linear in speed and in the viscosity , and give the SI units of as .
Size-dependent settling and molecular separation
Record that a sphere's mass scales as while the Stokes drag scales as , that molecules of different sizes accelerate at different rates, and name sedimentation devices as the application.