Conservation of Mass, Momenta, and Energy

Abstract

Although to penetrate into the intimate mysteries of nature and thence to learn the true causes of phenomena is not allowed to us, nevertheless it can happen that a certain fictive hypothesis may suffice for explaining many phenomena. Leonard Euler Nothing is too wonderful to be true if it be consistent with the laws of nature. Michael Faraday Introduction Virtually every phenomenon in nature, whether mechanical, biological, chemical, geological, or geophysical, can be described in terms of mathematical relations among various quantities of interest. Most mathematical models of physical phenomena are based on fundamental scientific laws of physics that are extracted from centuries of research on the behavior of mechanical systems subjected to the action of natural forces. What is most exciting is that the laws of physics, which are also termed principles of mechanics , govern biological systems as well (because of mass and energy transports). However, biological systems may require additional laws, yet to be discovered, from biology and chemistry to complete their description. This chapter is devoted to the study of fundamental laws of physics as applied to mechanical systems. The laws of physics are expressed in analytical form with the aid of the concepts and quantities introduced in previous chapters. The laws or principles of physics that we study here are (1) the principle of conservation of mass, (2) the principle of conservation of linear momentum, (3) the principle of conservation of angular momentum, and (4) the principle of conservation of energy.