Description: The most direct way of explaining how a fluid flows is by drawing streamlines -- lines that are tangential to the velocity vector at each point. If the flow is steady, the streamlines are particle paths indicating the trajectories of tiny fluid parcels. This book contains graphs of streamline patterns for selected families of fluid flows, and can be used to learn or teach about streamlines. The vast majority of streamline patterns to be depicted were drawn using a FORTRAN program that was written especially for that purpose. The program offers a cascade of menus that prompt the reader to choose the desired type of flow. A starting point is specified, and the streamline is constructed by integrating the ordinary differential equation describing the trajectory of a fluid parcel. The output is plotted by another FORTRAN program that calls plotting routines from the vople/vogle graphics library and generates postscript files. A CD-ROM comes with the book so that the reader can actually compute what is shown in the pictures. As the author points out, there is an aesthetic element that adds additional appeal to the broad readership, since streamline patterns can be as attractive as fractals.

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