Fluid Scenario Inquiry & Modeling
I. Scientific Inquiry
a. Pose a genuine question about a scenario involving fluids in a human/animal activity, biological process, or biomedical procedure.
b. Refine your inquiry to explore the possible physical mechanisms underlying the fluids phenomenon in your scenario. Refining your inquiry to explore the biological mechanism may have to be done first
II. Research info
a. Research to find information that provides some insight into a possible physical mechanism underlying the activity/biological functioning of your inquiry.
i. Finding information about the biological mechanism might be the initial or intermediate step.
ii. Include your references.
iii. I your research takes you in a new direction
III. Applying Physics Concepts
a. Suggest or explain an underlying physical mechanism of the fluids phenomenon in the scenario or a key element of the biological mechanism, in terms of the physics principles/concepts of fluids.
i. If appropriate, suggest or explain the biological mechanism first.
IV. Modeling
a. Reframe your scenario Inquiry in terms of measurable or calculable quantities inherent in the underlying physical mechanism of your fluids phenomenon. The magnitude of at least one of the quantities (e.g. density, pressure, flow rate, force, area, energy, volume, time, power, viscosity, velocity, etc.) should give insight or basis for making an inference to the scenario inquiry.
i. Comparison with a known value, or of values between two variations is an option
b. Choose a mathematical fluid model showing the functional relationship between your interesting measurable quantity and other measurable quantities relevant to your fluid phenomenon.
i. Explain the choice of your model. It should be clear what essential functioning of the real physical system is described by the model
ii. Explain the limitations of your model in your scenario
iii. Explain what each algebraic symbol represents. Also, is the algebraic symbol a variable?... a constant characteristic of the material?... a universal constant?
V. Quantitative Analysis
a. Calculate a meaningful value (or estimated value) of a quantity using your mathematical model.
i. Find or estimate quantities needed. Cite sources or give URL, or basis for estimation
ii. Simplifying assumptions should be stated.
iii. Include units
iv. Show all steps in your calculation
b. Significance of result
i. Did the value of your answer make sense? If not, explore possible reasons why. Could it be the limitations of the model or the approximations made in using the model?
ii. If the value made sense, state a conclusion or inference about your fluids scenario, based on the results of your calculation.