Conservation Form

Conservation form refers to an arrangement of an equation or system of equations, usually representing a physical system, that show that a property represented is conserved by making overall change equal to zero.

An example of a set of equations written in conservation form could be the Euler equations of fluid flow:

{\partial\rho\over\partial t}+ \nabla\cdot(\rho\bold u)=0
{\partial\rho{\bold u}\over\partial t}+ \nabla\cdot(\rho \bold u)\bold u+\nabla p=0
{\partial E\over\partial t}+ \nabla\cdot(\bold u(E+p))=0

Each of these represents the conservation of mass, momentum and energy, respectively.


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