Stokes' paradox

In the science of fluid flow, Stokes' paradox is the phenomenon that there can be no creeping flow of a fluid around a disk in two dimensions; or, equivalently, the fact there is no non-trivial steady-state solution for the Stokes equations around an infinitely long cylinder. This is opposed to the 3-dimensional case, where Stokes' method provides a solution to the problem of flow around a sphere.

Stokes' paradox was resolved by Carl Wilhelm Oseen in 1910, by introducing the Oseen equations which improve upon the Stokes equations – by adding convective acceleration.