Editing Potential flow (section)

==Applicability and limitations==
Potential flow does not include all the characteristics of flows that are encountered in the real world.  Potential flow theory cannot be applied for viscous [[internal flow]]s,<ref name=B_378_380/> except for [[Hele-Shaw flow|flows between closely spaced plates]]. [[Richard Feynman]] considered potential flow to be so unphysical that the only fluid to obey the assumptions was "dry water" (quoting John von Neumann).<ref>{{citation| author1-link=Richard Feynman | first1=R. P. | last1=Feynman | first2=R. B. | last2=Leighton | author2-link=Robert B. Leighton | first3=M. | last3=Sands | author3-link=Matthew Sands | year=1964 | title=[[The Feynman Lectures on Physics]] | publisher=Addison-Wesley | volume=2 }}, p. 40-3. Chapter 40 has the title: ''The flow of dry water''.</ref> Incompressible potential flow also makes a number of invalid predictions, such as [[d'Alembert's paradox]], which states that the drag on any object moving through an infinite fluid otherwise at rest is zero.<ref name=B_404_405>Batchelor (1973) pp. 404–405.</ref> More precisely, potential flow cannot account for the behaviour of flows that include a [[boundary layer]].<ref name=B_378_380/> Nevertheless, understanding potential flow is important in many branches of fluid mechanics. In particular, simple potential flows (called [[elementary flow]]s) such as the [[free vortex]] and the [[wikt:point source|point source]] possess ready analytical solutions.  These solutions can be [[Superposition principle|superposed]] to create more complex flows satisfying a variety of boundary conditions.  These flows correspond closely to real-life flows over the whole of fluid mechanics; in addition, many valuable insights arise when considering the deviation (often slight) between an observed flow and the corresponding potential flow. Potential flow finds many applications in fields such as aircraft design. For instance, in [[computational fluid dynamics]], one technique is to couple a potential flow solution outside the [[boundary layer]] to a solution of the [[Boundary layer#Boundary layer equations|boundary layer equations]] inside the boundary layer. The absence of boundary layer effects means that any streamline can be replaced by a solid boundary with no change in the flow field, a technique used in many aerodynamic design approaches. Another technique would be the use of [[Riabouchinsky solid]]s.{{dubious|date=March 2009}}