http://www.ck12.org Chapter 17. Fluids
CHAPTER
(^17) Fluids
Chapter Outline
17.1 Buoyancy
17.2 Pressure in Fluids
Introduction
The Big Idea
In studying fluids we apply the concepts of force, momentum, and energy —which we have learned previously —to
new phenomena. Since fluids are made from a large number of individual molecules, we have to look at their
behavior as an ensemble and not individually. For this reason, we use the concept of conservation ofenergy density
in place of conservation of energy. Energy density is energy divided by volume. Newtonian fluids (the normal type
and only type we deal with here) are non-compressible. This leads to Pascal’s and Archimedes’ Principles
discussed below.