physics notes

Bernoulli's principle, sometimes known as Bernoulli's equation, holds that for fluids in an ideal state, pressure and density are inversely related: in other words, a slow-moving fluid exerts more pressure than a fast-moving fluid. Since "fluid" in this context applies equally to liquids and gases, the principle has as many applications with regard to airflow as to the flow of liquids. One of the most dramatic everyday examples of Bernoulli's principle can be found in the airplane, which stays aloft due to pressure differences on the surface of its wing; but the truth of the principle is also illustrated in something as mundane as a shower curtain that billows inward.

The Swiss mathematician and physicist Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782) discovered the principle that bears his name while conducting experiments concerning an even more fundamental concept: the conservation of energy. This is a law of physics that holds that a system isolated from all outside factors maintains the same total amount of energy, though energy transformations from one form to another take place.
For instance, if you were standing at the top of a building holding a baseball over the side, the ball would have a certain quantity of potential energy—the energy that an object possesses by virtue of its position. Once the ball is dropped, it immediately begins losing potential energy and gaining kinetic energy—the energy that an object possesses by virtue of its motion. Since the total energy must remain constant, potential and kinetic energy have an inverse relationship: as the value of one variable decreases, that of the other increases in exact proportion.
The ball cannot keep falling forever, losing potential energy and gaining kinetic energy. In fact, it can never gain an amount of kinetic energy greater than the potential energy it possessed in the first place. At the moment before the ball hits the ground, its kinetic energy is equal to the potential energy it possessed at the top of the building. Correspondingly, its potential energy is zero—the same amount of kinetic energy it possessed before it was dropped.
Then, as the ball hits the ground, the energy is dispersed. Most of it goes into the ground, and depending on the rigidity of the ball and the ground, this energy may cause the ball to bounce. Some of the energy may appear in the form of sound, produced as the ball hits bottom, and some will manifest as heat. The total energy, however, will not be lost: it will simply have changed form.
Bernoulli was one of the first scientists to propose what is known as the kinetic theory of gases: that gas, like all matter, is composed of tiny molecules in constant motion. In the 1730s, he conducted experiments in the conservation of energy using liquids, observing how water flows through pipes of varying diameter. In a segment of pipe with a relatively large diameter, he observed, water flowed slowly, but as it entered a segment of smaller diameter, its speed increased.
It was clear that some force had to be acting on the water to increase its speed. Earlier, Robert Boyle (1627-1691) had demonstrated that pressure and volume have an inverse relationship, and Bernoulli seems to have applied Boyle's findings to the present situation. Clearly the volume of water flowing through the narrower pipe at any given moment was less than that flowing through the wider one. This suggested, according to Boyle's law, that the pressure in the wider pipe must be greater.
As fluid moves from a wider pipe to a narrower one, the volume of that fluid that moves a given distance in a given time period does not change. But since the width of the narrower pipe is smaller, the fluid must move faster in order to achieve that result. One way to illustrate this is to observe the behavior of a river: in a wide, unconstricted region, it flows slowly, but if its flow is narrowed by canyon walls (for instance), then it speeds up dramatically.
The above is a result of the fact that water is a fluid, and having the characteristics of a fluid, it adjusts its shape to fit that of its container or other solid objects it encounters on its path. Since the volume passing through a given length of pipe during a given period of time will be the same, there must be a decrease in pressure. Hence Bernoulli's conclusion: the slower the rate of flow, the higher the pressure, and the faster the rate of flow, the lower the pressure.
Bernoulli published the results of his work in Hydrodynamica (1738), but did not present his ideas or their implications clearly. Later, his friend the German mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) generalized his findings in the statement known today as Bernoulli's principle.