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ABSTRACT:
"Viscosity varies across the flow in the oceans, in Earth's outer core and in molten chocolate. In this talk I will discuss why a small variation in viscosity makes a huge difference to a flow, especially to the stability of laminar flows. I will choose simple geometries like channel flows to make the point. In channel flows transition to turbulence occurs at a Reynolds number where the laminar flow is linearly stable. This is because of algebraic growth of disturbances. We will talk about what these are, and how viscosity stratification affects the process."
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