Aerodynamics is one of the main fields of application for practical mathematics and the treatment of aerodynamic problems requires a thorough mathematical training. Whoever opens a modern book on aerodynamics will be surprised from the very beginning, that the phenomena within this very fugitive medium air may be expressed by formulas according to mathematical laws.

We must, however, never forget, that before a flow phenomenon can be mathematically analysed, physical reality must be understood by observation and experiment.

The mathematical treatment will always tend towards an approximate solution, as it is much too complicated to analyse a flow process exactly.