ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Convection diffusion equation

The convection diffusion equation is a way for scientists and engineers to describe how things spread out or move around in fluids like air or water.

Imagine you have a cup of hot chocolate and you want to cool it down by blowing on it. You might notice that the steam from the hot chocolate moves around as you blow on it. This movement of the steam is called "convection." It happens because the air moves faster and creates a low-pressure area around the steam, causing it to move to the surrounding area where the pressure is higher.

Now, imagine you drop a drop of food coloring into a glass of water. You might notice that the color spreads out over time, but it doesn't move as much as the steam from the hot chocolate. This is called "diffusion." It happens because the molecules of the food coloring are constantly moving around and bumping into the surrounding water molecules, causing them to spread out evenly over time.

The convection diffusion equation takes into account both of these processes and helps scientists and engineers predict what will happen when things move or spread out in fluids. It looks at how fast things are moving (convection) and how easily they spread out (diffusion) to figure out how quickly they will mix together and move around.

So, the convection diffusion equation helps us understand how things move and spread out in fluids, which can be useful for things like predicting how pollution might spread in a river or how gas might move through a pipeline.