In Lecture 10, we introduced a non-dimensional parameter called the Lundquist number, denoted by S. This is just one of many non-dimensional parameters that can appear in the formulations of both hydrodynamics and MHD. These generally express the ratio of the time scale associated with some dissipative process to the time scale associated with either wave propagation or transport by flow. These are important because they define regions in parameter space that separate flows with different physical characteristics. All flows that have the same non-dimensional parameters behave in the same way. This property is called similarity scaling.
The universe may have a purpose, but nothing we know suggests that, if so, it has any similarity to ours.
Bertrand Russell
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© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Schnack, D.D. (2009). Similarity Scaling. In: Lectures in Magnetohydrodynamics. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 780. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00688-3_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00688-3_11
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