Nikolai Zhukovsky - a famous domestic scientist who is most famous in the field of mechanics, is considered the founder of aero- and hydrodynamics. His career took place at the beginning of the 20th century, was a distinguished professor at Moscow University, the Imperial College, and was one of the corresponding members of the Imperial Academy of Sciences.
Biography of a scientist
Nikolai Zhukovsky was born in Vladimir province in 1847. He was born in the small village of Orekhovo. The father of the hero of our article was the headquarters captain, had a scientific degree as a military engineer. Mother Nikolai Zhukovsky was called Anna Nikolaevna Stechkina.
In 1858, Nicholas became a student of the Fourth Metropolitan Grammar School. He hoped to become a railway engineer, like his father, but the limited financial resources of his parents did not allow him to be sent to study at the Petersburg Institute of Railways. The fee for education at Moscow University was much lower, so he stayed to study at it.
Education
In 1864, Nikolai Zhukovsky graduated from high school with a silver medal, for which he was admitted to the physics and mathematics department of the capital's university without exams. He received a diploma in applied mechanics, and after two years he nevertheless made an attempt to enter the Petersburg Institute of Railways, but could not pass the entrance tests.
Since 1870, Zhukovsky began teaching at the Second Moscow Gymnasium. He lectures in physics. The next year he manages to pass master's exams to start teaching mathematics, and a year later - mechanics. He teaches these disciplines to students of the capital's higher technical school.
An important event in the biography of Nikolai Zhukovsky takes place in 1876, when he defends a master's thesis on the kinematics of a fluid body. In 1882, the hero of our article becomes a doctor of applied mathematics with a paper on the strength of motion.
Career
In the future, the career and biography of Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovsky develop quite successfully. In 1879, he became a supernumerary professor of mechanics, since 1885 he has been simultaneously engaged in teaching at the metropolitan university. He gives lectures on hydrodynamics, and soon receives an extraordinary professor's degree at the Department of Applied Mechanics.
Since 1887, Zhukovsky is a full-time professor at the capital's higher technical school, and he has also taught a course at the Academy of Commercial Sciences on practical mechanics for a long time, and has been teaching at the engineering school belonging to the Ministry of Railways.
In telling a brief biography of Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky, it should be noted that in 1893 he received the status of a real state adviser, and a year later became a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences.
Aerodynamic research
In 1902, Zhukovsky began to deeply study aerodynamics. He is working on the creation of a wind tunnel that works on the suction type. Studies were conducted on the basis of the mechanical cabinet of the capital's university. In 1904, Zhukovsky became the head of the Aerodynamic Institute, which turned out to be the first in Europe. It was created in Kuchino near Moscow at the expense of another scientist - Dmitry Pavlovich Ryabushinsky.
In 1905, the hero of our article was elected the head of the capital's mathematical society. Three years later he became known as the founder of the aeronautical circle, in which many famous researchers in the future took their first steps - Vetchinkin, Arkhangelsky, Musinyants, Stechkin, Sabinin, Yuriev, Tupolev. Soon, Zhukovsky himself began to head the aerodynamic laboratory created on the basis of this school.
Published works
Since 1916, Zhukovsky has led the Settlement and Testing Bureau at the same aerodynamic laboratory. In particular, on its basis, methods for calculating the strength of aircraft are being developed. The conclusions to which he came were described in detail in his works entitled "Dynamics of airplanes in elementary presentation", "Proceedings of the Settlement and Testing Bureau", "Study of the stability of the design of airplanes."
Also, with his direct participation, enrollment in aviation courses was announced, which already in 1919 was transformed into the Moscow Aviation College, and eventually into the Institute of Engineers of the Red Air Fleet. In the future, they became known as the Air Force Academy, and then the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute.
Anniversary of scientific activity
In 1920, the 50th anniversary of the scientific activity of the hero of our article was widely celebrated, at that time Nikolai Zhukovsky was officially called the father of Russian aviation. A decree of the Council of People's Commissars appears, signed by Vladimir Lenin, on the establishment of the Zhukovsky Prize for outstanding works in mathematics and mechanics, the work of the scientist himself has been published, he himself received a number of benefits for his services.
Zhukovsky died in 1921 at the age of 74. He is buried in a cemetery on the territory of the Donskoy monastery in the capital.
Scientific activity
Let us now dwell in more detail on the biography of the professor, the father of Russian aviation, Nikolai Zhukovsky, and talk about his work and achievements.
A major role was played by an article entitled "Application of the theory of centers of accelerations of higher orders to the Chebyshev guide mechanism", which was published in 1883. When it was written by Zhukovsky, an apparatus was used to accelerate higher orders to the theory of mechanisms. In particular, he sought to solve the problem of synthesizing the directing mechanism of Chebyshev himself.
In 1890, his publication on Kirchhoff's methods devoted to fluid motions in several dimensions, provided that a constant velocity set on an unknown streamline was retained, gained great importance. She came out in the mathematical collection of Moscow State University. In the same year, an attempt was made by scientists to develop theoretical foundations for determining the lift of a propeller or wing. For this, Zhukovsky wrote a work entitled "On the theory of flying."
Fundamentals of Aviation Science
It should be noted that the main achievements of Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky are that his ideas served as the basis on which all aviation science developed in the future.
In particular, he carefully studied the dynamics of bird flights, and in 1891 he made a presentation on this. The work entitled "On the soaring of birds" was presented on November 3. The following year, another report appeared on the Chernushenko flying projectile. Zhukovsky also compiled key equations for determining the center of gravity of the planning body under the condition of a constant angle of attack, he described the trajectories of various conditions of air movement, including the possibility of a dead loop being predicted in detail.
In 1895, Zhukovsky visited Germany, where he held a productive meeting with one of the pioneers of aeronautics Otto Lilienthal. Nikolai Egorovich bought a glider from him for further research.
Ongoing projects
It is worth noting that at the same time, the scientist paid great attention to various ongoing projects. For example, at the end of the XIX century, he studied the causes of the accident that happened on the capital's water supply. Based on the results of this study, he made a detailed report at a meeting of engineers and scientists at the Polytechnic Society. In particular, he was devoted to the phenomenon of water hammer. Zhukovsky discovered all its mechanisms, deduced formulas that related pressure, flow velocity, density to the dependence on the radius of the pipe, and various options were also considered depending on the distance and time of the section in question, the selected coordinates.
In 1898, he participated in the Congress of Russian Naturalists and Doctors, at which he read a review report entitled "On Aeronautics." In the same year he developed economical principles of horizontal flight. The hero of our article described them in detail in his study "On Winged Propellers."
Lectures and theorems
The contribution to the science of Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovsky is difficult to overestimate. In 1904, he formulated a theorem that examined in detail the quantitative value of the force needed to lift an aircraft into the air. In particular, with its help, it was possible to determine in detail the key profiles of the propeller blades and wings of the aircraft, to develop the theory of the propeller.
The following year, many noted Zhukovsky's report on the associated vortices. It is believed that this work laid the foundation for the development of methods for determining the lift of an airplane wing. These discoveries were published by him in 1906 in a work devoted to the fall of elongated bodies in the air.
Many of his studies became the basis of all kinds of lectures. For example, from 1910 to 1912, he taught a course on the theoretical foundations of aeronautics. In it, the father of Russian aviation Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky was able to systematize his experimental studies and theoretical work done on the basis of the Kuchinsky Institute. They also paid attention to the research of Chaplygin. In particular, a special apparatus designed to solve the problems of flow around a wing has been developed.
In the period from 1912 to 1916, Zhukovsky introduced the principle of distribution of speed at the propeller blade, which as a result became the basis for future propellers.
During the First World War, Nikolai Yegorovich was engaged in the substantiation of the theory of bombing, investigated the issues of ballistics of artillery shells.
Opinion on the theory of relativity
Interestingly, in his scientific works and statements he repeatedly denied the theory of relativity. A theoretical justification can be found in his speech, known as "Old Mechanics in New Physics." It was pronounced in March 1918 at a meeting of the Mathematical Society in Moscow.
In particular, Zhukovsky noted that in 1905 Einstein embarked on a metaphysical point of view, which brought the solution to the mathematical problem into physical reality. The Russian scientist himself expressed the conviction that the problems of electromagnetic theory and light speeds can be solved using the mechanics of Newton and Galileo. On this basis, he called doubtful the importance of Einstein's work in this area.
He was interested in this topic for many years, was the subject of much debate and discussion, and was often discussed at seminars and lectures.