The potential flow equation with well-posed boundary conditions applied is:
*Note that the  integration term is evaluated only on the upper surface, while th  integral term is evaluated on the upper and lower surfaces.
The continuous surface S may now be discretized into discrete panels.  These panels will approximate the shape of the actual surface.  This value of the various source and doublet terms may be evaluated at a convenient point (such as the centroid of the panel).  Some assumed distribution of the source and doublet strengths (typically constant or linear) are used at points other than the centroid.  A single source term s of unknown strength  and a single doublet term m of unknown strength  are defined at a given point.
where:
These terms can be used to create a system of linear equations which can be solved for all the unknown values of .