1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 140 The Spark Trio graduates and has a promising future!

With the publication of Ridgwell's Declaration of Prodigy, physics has undergone fundamental changes.

Physicists are still a bit reserved. Although they are in turmoil inside, they appear calm on the surface.

But their actions exposed their ambitions: they read thicker and thicker papers, conducted more and more in-depth experiments, and attended more and more conferences.

The big guys are racing against time to try to gain a place in the world of physics.

And a large number of physicists are even crazier.

Nowadays, with the rapid development of theory and experimental equipment, even people with lower levels can produce good results.

Therefore, physicists have almost reached the point of neglecting food and sleep, and sleeping in the laboratory is commonplace.

According to them, what if the experimental phenomenon occurs at night?

Then if you go home and sleep, you will miss it.

At first glance, it does make a lot of sense.

There are many examples in the history of physics of discovering important phenomena by accident.

The largest group in the field of physics is not physicists or physicists, but always students.

Whether they are undergraduates or doctoral students, they are the future and hope of physics.

Only when each generation of students becomes stronger than the previous one can physics continue to develop.

The genius pointed out the direction for physics, but the road leading to it was paved by countless ordinary physicists.

Perhaps some students will never grow up to publish the theory of relativity, but they may become a good teacher and cultivate a genius.

Therefore, no university in the world will neglect the education and training of students.

On December 1902, 12, Trinity College officially held undergraduate defense.

There were about 15 people participating in the defense, and the names of He Yujie, Xia Yuanzhao and Xu Qitai were among them.

Li Qiwei's undergraduate graduation defense has now become a legend at Trinity College and is talked about by countless people.

This directly led to the increase in the threshold of many teachers and students.

Ordinary defense can no longer cause them to feel emotional.

However, the atmosphere at the graduation defense still made everyone look serious.

This is not a casual occasion, but a sacred and pure place for academic exchange.

Real knowledge needs to be respected. If a kind of knowledge makes you feel problematic, then it may not be real knowledge.

The number of auditors for this graduation defense was about 80, far less than that of Li Qiwei.

But when Li Qiwei saw He Yujie and the other two, his body was still trembling slightly, and there was a flush of excitement on his face.

Extremely nervous.

He smiled at the three of them and encouraged them with his eyes.

Professor Case originally wanted to bring Li Qiwei to the jury, but he refused on the grounds of avoiding suspicion.

So now Li Qiwei is sitting in the corner of the back row.

However, his fame was so great that everyone in the venue couldn't help but look at him inadvertently with envy in their eyes.

This also made He Yujie and the other two feel relieved. It seemed that everyone's attention was on Brother Li.

The first person to take the stage was Xia Yuansong, whose undergraduate thesis was on the field of optics.

The main content is to study the conditions required for the diffraction of light in various situations and to prove them through mathematical formulas.

The overall difficulty is average and it is a good graduation thesis.

Because his paper involved light, Professor Case suddenly woke up, and the wave-particle duality that Li Qiwei had told him was still lingering in his ears.

This is what Professor Case regrets the most. He did not conduct in-depth research and thus missed the opportunity to discover important theories.

For this reason, Professor Case often mentioned this example in class and warned his students:

“Never miss any detail. The truth of physics is often hidden in the simplest phenomena.”

"Thinking back then, I"

If you talk too much, the students will be speechless.

Young people often say in private that Professor Case is incompetent and just likes to give others chicken soup.

Today, when Professor Case saw Xia Yuansong's paper, he thought of that afternoon and that beam of light again.

So, Xia Yuanzhen was in trouble.

Professor Case asked several questions in a row as if he had taken stimulants.

They are all about unclear parts in the paper, whether it is experimental steps or calculation formulas.

Moreover, these questions are to the point, requiring not only sufficient knowledge accumulation of the respondent himself, but also the ability to think divergently.

If you simply conducted an experiment and mechanically recorded the data without any analysis or thinking of your own, then you will basically not be able to answer these questions.

It requires the respondent to have a systematic perspective and breadth of his or her research from beginning to end.

Of course, even if you can’t answer the question, it doesn’t mean you can’t graduate.

After all, as long as you do the experiments yourself and write the thesis yourself, there will be no problem with graduation.

But in front of so many people, no normal young person could endure the humiliation of not being able to answer a question.

One is okay, but if you can’t answer several questions in a row, then you’ll have to find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

Xia Yuanshao was asked so many questions that his mouth became dry. His brain was working frantically, and lines of derivation process flashed quickly in his eyes.

From the reasons for starting the project to the problems that occurred during the experiments, how he discovered and analyzed them.

Finally, the derivation of the results and the innovation of the paper are very comprehensive.

Fortunately, he was well prepared and had received Li Qiwei's advance guidance, so he was able to answer Professor Keith's questions with difficulty.

The latter nodded with satisfaction and wrote an excellent comment on the paper.

Obviously, if the other party cannot answer these questions, then Professor Case will only give a qualified evaluation.

If you can't even answer the simplest questions, you will be rejected.

The short ten-minute questioning seemed like a century to Xia Yuanzhen. He finally understood Li Qiwei's good intentions.

The graduation defense is a summary of one's achievements.

If you cannot answer most of the questions posed by the judges, it means that your learning is still superficial.

Without a deep understanding of one's own research, one only knows the results but not the reasons behind them.

This defense experience also deeply influenced Xia Yuansong's future teaching style.

Many years later, many students who graduated from Xia Yuanshao's defense have become leaders in their respective fields and are highly respected.

But when they have the opportunity to get together, they will compete with each other like children with great enthusiasm:
During the graduation defense, I insisted on asking Professor Xia several questions.

"I only lasted 3 questions."

"That won't work. You're too weak."

"Nonsense, I answered the most questions in my class."

"I stuck with 6 questions."

"Awesome! Excuse me, may I ask where you are working now?"

"Thank you for the compliment. I am temporarily honored as a first-class professor at Qiwei Polytechnic Institute."

"Wow!"

"I stuck with 9 questions."

"Big man! Please accept my knee. You are at least an academician, right?"

"Ah."

"I stuck with 12 questions."

"Hiss!" Everyone gasped.

"It's a pity that he has only won a Nobel Prize in Physics so far, and his achievements are mediocre."

"God! You are our senior brother!"

The last person.

"I stuck with 15 questions."

"."Everyone fell silent.

At this moment, Professor Xia, who was admired by countless students in later generations, was now being tortured to death by the defense just like them.

Xia Yuanzhen breathed a sigh of relief, it was finally over.

Then he looked at He Yujie and Xu Qitai with ill intent and a gloating smile.

The two of them were trembling with fear. They were also frightened just now, and their brains were still blank.

Soon, it was He Yujie's turn. His undergraduate thesis was on the field of thermal energy.

The main research content is about the application analysis of the second law of thermodynamics in specific practice.

Like Xia Yuansong, He Yujie also experienced the baptism of asking questions, leaving an indelible memory.

Next came Xu Qitai, whose undergraduate thesis was about the radioactivity of uranium, which immediately caused an uproar.

Because this direction is a bit high-end and not like a field that undergraduates can research.

However, after Li Qiwei came out and gave a brief explanation, everyone understood.

Wow, this Xu Qitai is actually half a student of Rutherford.

As a result, there were more questions asked to him, far more than those asked to He Xia and the other two.

Xu Qitai was in tears.

Watching the three people on the stage go from nervous to high-spirited before and after the defense, Li Qiwei felt filled with emotion.

He felt a little guilty for not giving the Spark Trio a Nobel Prize-level result.

When Xu Qitai and Wang Luyao were discussing the diffraction of X-rays on the train, I only had to mention it briefly.

With Xu Qitai's hands-on ability, he would surely be able to discover the diffraction phenomenon of X-rays and easily win the Nobel Prize in Physics in the future.

But Li Qiwei chose not to do so.

As for the Spark Trio, he was confident that he could have each of them win the Nobel Prize in Physics.

But this may not be a good thing for them.

The three of them are certainly at the elite level in China at this moment, but they are still a long way from being true physics geniuses.

If we give them Nobel Prize-level results, it would be like forcing things to grow, and would affect their original intention of returning to implement the Spark Project.

Li Qiwei positioned the three people as the founders and pioneers of Chinese physics.

It is to let them act as seeds, take root and sprout, and cultivate more scientific talents for China.

Therefore, the focus of the three people was destined to be education rather than personal research.

He didn't know whether what he did was selfish, but he would definitely compensate the three people.

Because they will devote their entire lives to the country's science and engineering education, such people deserve a bright future.

So, when the defense was over, Li Qiwei went on stage and praised the three people.

The three of them are very excited now. After passing the defense, they feel like they have been reborn.

Even my perspective is different from before.

From today on, they are no longer ordinary people, but undergraduates in physics graduating from Cambridge University.

Li Qiwei patted the three of them and said with a smile: "You are all great."

"Once you return to China, it will be your time."

"Gentlemen, the future is promising!"

The right hands of the three people, with Li Qiwei as the core, tightly clenched into a triangle, which will support the future of Chinese science!

(End of this chapter)