The Further Development of Fluid Mappers

Fluid mappers can be built to simulate, and lead to the solution of a great many field situations in electrostatics, electromagnetics, eddy currents, heat conduction, and other analogous cases. Distributed sources, as well as ordinary sources, may be represented. Fluid mapper techniques are well enough developed so that many fields now can be simulated with sufficient accuracy, by applying tested routines to building and operating the mappers. But like all other devices, fluid mappers have their own special problems, troubles, and limitations. Also, they will be called upon to go beyond the limits within which the writer's work has been carried out. Further invention, research, and development of additional techniques are called for. By pointing out the problems and limitations, the paper does two things. First, those who are building fluid mappers for teaching, research, or application, are assisted in understanding the limitations and in minimizing inherent effects tending to reduce accuracy. Second, the numerous problems and needs described should invite interested workers, graduate students especially, to tackle the tasks that will lead to more and bettered techniques, a broadening of the range of work to which mappers may be applied, and an increase in the knowledge required for designing fluid mappers for particular jobs. Two phenomena occurring within certain distributed sources are described and named. It can at least be said that both are relatively unknown; and one of them may be new.