I have noticed this quite often that papers from the esteemed Journal of Fluid Mechanics are very intense mathematically. The topic of the paper looks very attractive but as soon as I get into the details, it all starts getting messed up. Any suggestions on how to increase my knowledge to be better able to appreciate such high quality work is welcome.
JFM papers are typically scary looking, in their content, I would agree. I am no different from that feeling--but sharing my take, nonetheless.
I believe the best way to get use to reading and understanding JFM articles, is to read even more of'em. Although I believe that even the most respected of their authors, have similar forbia in reading other JFM articles not related to their line of expertise.
Moreover, unless you are working on a topic that is closely/directly related to the paper, try to not understand every detail of it, just get the big picture; what question is the paper trying to answer, what approach (mathematically, experimental, computational, ... ..) is implemented, how is the approach validated, and is/are the question(s) answered to your satisfaction? What concerns do you have about the approach used...?. Also, avoid chasing every concept and their references, reference of references, ......that may only slow you down and may end up discouraging you to accomplish the reading/understanding task.
Dear Martin Ndi Azese , thank you for your suggestion. I will try to approach JFM papers this way.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Papers