> In another comment, you said that you don't know what the Navier-Stokes equations are. Given that, I don't think you're in a good position to judge their value.
It was an exaggeration given that it never came up during my studies once. And I think that's a fantastic assessment of their value that I made it through most of a decade of studies without having to know a thing about fluid dynamics.
> I have a couple of group theory books myself, and I don't agree with your assessment that group theory should get priority over fluid dynamics.
...why? You're commenting on a physics line of education here. We don't use fluid dynamics and we extensively use group theory.
You are missing my main point. Physics education tends to exclude fluid dynamics, so of course you wouldn't hear much about it or do research in it if you only have physics degrees. If a physics degree were about physics as defined in the dictionary, fluid dynamics would be more prominent. But "physics" as studied in a "physics" department is much more narrow than the dictionary definition.
Fluid phenomena is ubiquitous. You live in a fluid. You probably drive a car through a fluid and may occasionally take a plane through a fluid at higher speed. You surely use plumbing. I don't see how you can claim that fluid dynamics is not valuable given that. It's a lot more relevant to most people than quantum mechanics.
Physics education focuses on exciting areas of research. There isn't much interesting work currently taking place in fluids. We consider it a solved problem. The fact that we drive cars through fluids is completely irrelevant.
It was an exaggeration given that it never came up during my studies once. And I think that's a fantastic assessment of their value that I made it through most of a decade of studies without having to know a thing about fluid dynamics.
> I have a couple of group theory books myself, and I don't agree with your assessment that group theory should get priority over fluid dynamics.
...why? You're commenting on a physics line of education here. We don't use fluid dynamics and we extensively use group theory.