Stokes

Stokes is a surname of English and Irish origin and a term used in science to name several concepts. The most prominent bearer is George Gabriel Stokes (1819–1903), an Irish-born physicist and mathematician who served as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge and as president of the Royal Society. His work spanned fluid dynamics, optics, and spectroscopy, and several concepts bear his name.

Stokes' theorem, also called the Gauss–Stokes theorem, is a fundamental result in vector calculus. It relates the line integral of a vector field around a closed curve to a surface integral of its curl over any surface bounded by the curve.

Stokes' law describes the drag force on a small sphere moving at low Reynolds numbers through a viscous fluid: F_d = 6πμR v. It is foundational to the study of Stokes flow and microfluidics.

The Stokes parameters are a set of four values that characterize the polarization state of light. They provide a convenient description of partially polarized light in many optical systems.

Stokes shift is the difference in energy or wavelength between the absorbed and emitted photons in fluorescence, arising from vibrational relaxation in the excited state.

There are other uses of the name Stokes in mathematics and physics, and as a surname, it appears in various institutions and places named for its bearers.