Abstract
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Royal Irish Academy, March 16. W. B. MORTON: Vortex polygons. A revision and completion of the classical investigation of J. J. Thomson on the stability of the rotation of a set of equal straight vortex-filaments at the angular point of a regular polygon. It is found that the period of rotation is that also of the most rapid oscillations about steady motion, the shorter periods given in the former work for five and six vortices being spurious, and arising from an unjustifiable step in the analysis. The motion of seven vortices is on the border line between stability and instability, one of the oscillations having vanishing frequency, to the first order of approximation. The modes of motion in each case are examined in detail.
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Societies and Academies. Nature 135, 766–768 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135766b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135766b0