Pedro Domingos Explains Why Navier-Stokes Is Nonlinear While Newton's Laws Are Linear
pmddomingos · x · 2026-09-09
In a two-part Q&A, AI researcher Pedro Domingos explains why Navier-Stokes equations are nonlinear even though they are just Newton's laws applied to fluids, which are linear.
His answer: velocity in Navier-Stokes is not the velocity of a particle but the velocity at a point in space. The particle occupying that point keeps changing, and the faster the motion, the faster it changes, making the acceleration term quadratic. Without this nonlinearity, there would be no turbulence.
More from AGI Musings
- Blogger proposes study measuring how often AI trend-mockers get proven wrong — moultano · 2026-09-09
- Why AI Hasn't Boosted Growth Yet: It's a Function of Global Inference Capacity — zephyr_z9 · 2026-09-09
- Math lacks metascience tradition, making AI slop claims weakly grounded, researcher argues — RexDouglass · 2026-09-09
- AI practitioner mocks AGI hype: researchers can't even deploy AI securely in labs — iamKierraD · 2026-09-09
- OpenAI Solved a Millennium Prize Problem — So Why Is Software Still Buggy? — ziv_ravid · 2026-09-09
- From 'crackpot' to plausible: AI solving Navier-Stokes flipped in months — EigenGender · 2026-09-09