Inviscid Flow and Potential Flow Theory

TL;DR

You'll learn how dropping viscosity from Navier-Stokes gives you the Euler equations, and how adding one more assumption—zero vorticity—collapses the whole velocity field into a single scalar function obeying Laplace's equation. You'll build flows by adding simple pieces together (superposition), model flow past a cylinder, and see exactly where this elegant theory breaks: it predicts zero drag but still explains lift.

1. The Mental Model

Real fluids have friction; inviscid flow just pretends they don't. Potential flow goes further: it assumes the fluid isn't rotating locally anywhere, which means you can describe the entire velocity field with one number per point instead of two or three. Because the resulting equation is linear, you can build complicated fl