ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Chapman–Enskog expansion

The Chapman-Enskog expansion is a mathematical tool used to describe the behavior of gases. Imagine you have a box full of gas molecules bouncing around. Chapman-Enskog helps us understand how the properties of the gas change as the molecules interact with each other.

Think of the molecules in the gas as little balls that are moving around really fast. They're constantly colliding with each other and bouncing off in different directions. They might bump into each other so hard that they stick together or they might just bounce back and go their separate ways.

Now, if we want to understand how the gas behaves on a larger scale, we need to look at how all of these little interactions between the molecules add up. The Chapman-Enskog expansion is a way to do that. We can think of it like breaking down a big problem into smaller, more manageable pieces.

The expansion allows us to express the properties of the gas in terms of how the molecules are interacting with each other. We can use it to calculate things like the velocity of the gas, the temperature, and the pressure.

So, in summary, the Chapman-Enskog expansion is a fancy tool that scientists use to understand how gases behave. It helps us break down a big problem into smaller pieces so that we can make calculations and predictions about the properties of the gas.