| RefNo | EC/1965/31 |
| Previous numbers | Cert XVII, 150 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Whitham, Gerald Beresford: certificate of election to the Royal Society |
| Description | Citation typed |
| Citation | Distinguished for his comprehensive elucidation of the dynamics of shock waves. In a series of brilliant papers, he originated two methods, for weak and strong shocks respectively. The first goes from an "acoustic" (small-perturbation) solution to a fully non-linear modification, including the shock wave movements, and has become standard for computing "supersonic bangs". The second method calculates the differential geometry of the successive shock-surface positions, from a new law for change of strength of not-too-weak shocks with area. He has applied his original methods to many other problems, the movements of weather fronts, floods, bores, congested traffic and magnetohydrodynamic shocks. |
| Proposers | From Personal Knowledge: M J Lighthill; G K Batchelor; T M Cherry; L Howarth; S Goldstein; G Temple |
| AccessStatus | Open |
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Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA1635 | Whitham; Gerald Beresford (1927 - 2014) | 1927 - 2014 |