Turbulence

Abstract

When I received the invitation to deliver this Memorial Lecture, and “Turbulence” was chosen as the subject, I remembered that my good friend, G. I. Taylor, gave a very stimulating talk on the same subject ten years ago. It was his G. I. Symons Memorial Lecture before the Royal Meteorological Society. He succeeded in fulfilling his job without using one mathematical symbol, the President of the Society, Sir Gilbert Walker, insisting very definitely that “turbulence without tears” was what he wanted. I do not think that I can duplicate Taylor's achievement completely; however, I shall try to reduce the mathematics to a minimum.