This piece on NPR from “Engines of our Ingenuity” brought back memories of lessons in 8th grade Earth Science.
This concept of channel flow is an excellent mathematics, physics and fluids problem. Think also of chemicals mixing as they are transported through a pipe. What kind of turbulence is created by the edge of the channel? When can you assume minimal drag and uniform flow along the edges of the channel? As you could see looking out the window of the plane, uniform flow is not a good assumption for a river!
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