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"Audacity or Precision": The Paradoxes of Henri Villat's Fluid Mechanics in Interwar France

Aubin David 1

(01/05/2010)

In Interwar France, Henri Villat became the true leader of theoretical researches on fluid mechanics. Most of his original work was done before the First Word War; it was highly theoretical and its applicability was questioned. After having organized the first post-WWI International Congress of Mathematicians in 1920, Villat became the editor of the famous Journal de mathématiques pure et appliqués and the director of the influential book series "Mémorial des sciences mathématiques." From 1929 on, he held the fluid mechanics chair established by the Air Ministry at the Sorbonne in Paris and was heading the government's critical effort invested in fluid mechanics. However, while both his wake theory and his turbulence theory seemingly had little success outside France or in the aeronautical industry (except in the eyes of his students), applied mathematics was despised by the loud generation of Bourbaki mathematicians coming of age in the mid 1930s. How are we to understand the contrasted assessments one can make of Villat's place in the history of fluid mechanics?

1 :	Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu (IMJ)
	CNRS : UMR7586 – Université Paris VI - Pierre et Marie Curie – Université Paris VII - Paris Diderot

Équipe de recherche : IMJ/HSM; ASHiC

Domaine

:

Sciences de l'Homme et Société/Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences Mathématiques/Histoire et perspectives sur les mathématiques

Mots Clés : mécanique des fluides – Henri Villat – histoire des sciences – résistance des fluides – hydrodynamique – première guerre mondiale – aéronautique

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Contributeur : Aubin David <>

Soumis le : Jeudi 10 Novembre 2011, 10:20:33

Dernière modification le : Jeudi 10 Novembre 2011, 11:20:54