1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 292: Denying the mechanical view of the universe! One man challenges the entire physics community!
In the face of Ridgway's probabilistic explanation, Einstein's rebuttal was recognized by the vast majority of people.

The strange transition behavior of electrons must be because there is some unknown mechanism that has not been discovered, so it presents the current probabilistic appearance.

As research continues, physicists will surely be able to figure out the nature of the transition.

Just like after knowing the law of universal gravitation, we can calculate the orbits of celestial bodies.

In ancient times, weren’t the laws governing the movement of celestial bodies also like miracles?

I have to say that this comparison does make sense.

And it is very consistent with the development of physics in this era.

Therefore, Li Qiwei needed to consider carefully how to answer Einstein's questions.

At this moment, the audience was still noisy and everyone's emotions had not yet calmed down.

Today's meeting has exceeded the imagination of too many people.

They had never encountered such a wonderful meeting.

The clash between the bosses was like a fight between the gods of Olympus.

Mortals can only watch from afar; once they get close, they will be affected by the residual power.

But now, if they try to think deeply, they would be doing a disservice to their brain cells.

After five minutes, Li Qiwei finally spoke.

"As I expected, when I gave you my explanation, it still shocked you."

"Einstein, I understand what you mean."

"It is actually the kind of determinism expressed by Laplace."

"If Laplacemon could know everything about all the atoms in the universe."

"Then it can come up with a system of equations based on that."

“Even if the number of equations in this system is so large that it is beyond human imagination.”

"But in essence, Laplacemon can know the past and future of the universe by calculating the solutions to the equations."

“This is the most popular worldview right now.”

"I call this view the mechanical view of the universe."

“In this view, the world is deterministic and predictable.”

"But, I would like to point out, there is a fatal problem with this view."

"That is, it developed from Newtonian mechanics."

"Newton's three laws of mechanics and the law of universal gravitation firmly govern the macroscopic world."

"Physicists who grow up in this context naturally choose to believe in the mechanical view of the universe."

“Because everything we come into contact with in our daily lives fits perfectly into the framework of this physical view.”

"Knowing the speed of the car, we can calculate where it will be one hour later."

“We can accurately predict where celestial bodies will appear and predict solar and lunar eclipses.”

“All phenomena in nature can be calculated by a physicist with a pen.”

“This is an achievement that cannot be described in any words.”

Li Qiwei's words made everyone nod frequently.

Yes, this is the worldview of all current physicists.

The world is accurate and predictable.

While the quantum concept denies continuity, the special theory of relativity denies absoluteness.

But these two properties are far less important than determinism and causality.

They are the building blocks of something deeper.

Once something goes wrong, even the nature of the world will be rewritten.

Therefore, many people cannot accept probability theory.

However, Li Qiwei continued:

"But physics is always moving forward."

“The old theories are running into more and more problems.”

"Especially in the areas of high-speed motion and microscopic particles, all existing theories are invalid."

"Newtonian mechanics has encountered unprecedented challenges."

“It can neither explain the constancy of the speed of light nor the quantized orbits of electrons.”

"This is enough to prove that Newtonian mechanics has limitations."

“And in some ways, it may even be wrong.”

"I have discussed the specific analysis in detail in the special theory of relativity."

"Therefore, the mechanical universe view based on Newtonian mechanics is bound to have natural flaws."

“I don’t think it’s an immutable thing.”

“New phenomena must require new theories to explain them.”

“Thus gave rise to the special theory of relativity and quantum theory, two cornerstone theories of modern physics.”

"One studies high-speed problems, and the other studies microscopic particle problems."

“The two complement each other to complement the deficiencies of physics.”

"We have perfectly incorporated those phenomena that were previously untreatable into physical theory."

"And now quantum theory goes a step further, not only believing that the microscopic world is discontinuous, but even probabilistic."

"Today I just said that the transition behavior of electrons is probabilistic."

"Perhaps in the future, the movement of any microscopic particle will be probabilistic, which is not impossible."

“Everything depends on how the theory develops.”

“This is a battle of ideas.”

"I welcome different opinions, but I will always keep my own interpretation of probability."

"Because my intuition tells me that it must be the most correct explanation."

"Even if countless people oppose me, I will persist."

"Even though there are tens of thousands of people, I will go!"

boom!
At this moment, everyone was stunned by Li Qiwei's domineering attitude.

The other party wants to challenge the entire physics community alone.

Almost no one present acknowledged the theory of probability, except Bruce.

Yet he still showed strong self-confidence.

That kind of domineering aura infected everyone.

Even if someone wants to refute, they are not at the right level and do not even have the logic to refute.

Ordinary people don't even have the qualifications to refute.

The ordinary people here refer to at least university professors.
Only great men like Rutherford and Einstein can debate head-on and with reason and evidence.

Moreover, Li Qiwei's rebuttal to the mechanical view of the universe is well-founded.

Directly attack the cornerstone of this worldview, Newtonian mechanics.

If even Newtonian mechanics has problems, then the various scientific edifices built on it must also have problems.

The special theory of relativity has demonstrated the limitations of Newtonian mechanics in high-speed motion.

As long as Ridgway can publish the general theory of relativity and make up for the shortcomings of the special theory of relativity, everything will be logically closed.

At this moment, no one expected that general relativity would have a wonderful connection with quantum theory.

After hearing Li Qiwei's answer, Einstein was not disappointed, but became even more motivated.

His whole body was shaking and his eyes seemed to be burning with flames.

"This is the Bruce I know."

“If he is determined, he will test it out even if God is standing in front of him.”

"He has transcended the realm of genius and reached another level."

“Perhaps, that is the realm of God?”

“But no matter what, I firmly believe that the world cannot be probabilistic.”

"There must be some hidden variable that has not been discovered yet."

“And this will be my next goal.”

"Bruce, I never thought that we would become academic rivals one day."

"But you are definitely wrong this time."

Einstein was so confident that he wanted to shout to the sky with excitement.

His relationship with Ridgway would not become distant because of arguments, but would become more sincere. This friendship, mixed with high respect for physics, was treasured by Einstein.

Maybe you only meet him once in your life.

Einstein smiled at Ridgway and sat down with satisfaction.

He knew that it would be impossible to determine right or wrong in today's meeting.

Such an incredible theory must require a lot of experiments and calculations.

Merely speaking cannot convince anyone.

Bruce was just using an example to express his point.

No definite proof was given.

Therefore, today's meeting is just the beginning of future academic competition.

Einstein couldn't wait.

Planck in the front row is probably the person with the most complicated emotions on the field at this moment.

He watched Li Qiwei speaking on the stage, even putting forward such sensational ideas as probability theory.

He felt mixed emotions.

When Planck was young, he was also a fearless person.

His physics teacher told him that physics was as good as it could get.

It will be useless if you go in now.

It’s better to study medicine.

Planck's temper suddenly came out.

I prefer to study!
Thus, his scientific talent began to emerge.

At a young age, he solved many difficult physics problems and became a physics giant in Germany.

He had already considered the concept of quantum before Li Qiwei.

The appearance of Li Qiwei made him make up his mind.

Thus, it became a beautiful story and a legend in the field of physics.

Even Ridgway regarded the publication of quantum theory as the dividing line between modern physics and classical physics.

Whenever Planck thought of this, he felt very lucky.

However, Li Qiwei's views today made Planck feel scared for the first time.

That's right, fear.

In fact, the older generation of physicists present, such as Lorentz, Michelson, and Thomson, all had this feeling.

Let me give you a vivid example.

It's like you've been sleeping with your wife for decades, and suddenly one day you find out that she's a man.

Now, that’s how the big guys feel.

It was like seeing a ghost.

Even Planck, who was known for his fearlessness of authority, grew up in the context of classical physics.

The publication of the quantum concept had exhausted all his courage.

He could not accept the probability explanation at all.

But it was proposed by his most proud student, Bruce.

This feeling can only be expressed with mixed feelings.

At this moment, Planck’s thought was: You can build it however you want, I won’t get involved anyway.

In real history, at the Fifth Solvay Conference, known as the Conference of the Century.

Bigwigs like Planck and Lorentz are just spectators.

They did not participate in the discussion at the meeting at all and played a mainly symbolic role.

It was just like watching Einstein, Schrödinger, de Broglie, and Compton fighting against Heisenberg, Pauli, Dirac and others led by Bohr.

Planck, the founder of quantum theory, did not participate in the discussion of quantum mechanics.

Because it's just too weird.

Planck's mind was full of thoughts.

However, Planck knew very well in his heart, no matter what he thought.

Bruce's fame will surely rise to new heights after today.

The nature of the world is probabilistic, and this statement will surely spread throughout the world.

Everyone in the physics field will go crazy over it.

Planck sighed and said, "Ah, I am getting more and more confused about physics."

“I hope Bruce’s generation can advance physics to incredible levels.”

“I really want to witness that day with my own eyes.”

The big guys nearby were all infected by Planck's words.

Some people even considered quitting.

Modern physics is really not suitable for old guys like them to participate in.

In real history, the contribution of the older generation of physicists to modern physics was indeed very low.

There is nothing we can do about it.

You can't expect ordinary people in the Qing Dynasty to imagine the prosperity of New York at that moment.

They couldn't figure it out even if they racked their brains.

And Michelson and others could not imagine what modern physics would look like.

Only someone with a wild imagination like Bruce is the most suitable.

Einstein, Bohr, Laue, Qian Wushi
These talents are the future of modern physics.

Li Qiwei on the stage did not expect that his remarks would make several bigwigs want to withdraw.

But that's also a good thing.

When the war comes, Li Qiwei may be able to trick them into going to the City of Science.

In those turbulent times, the attraction of a purely academic city to physicists was self-evident.

At this moment, Li Qiwei was standing on the podium, his heart pounding.

This feeling of defying everything and shocking everyone is intoxicating.

Although he couldn't convince anyone for the time being.

Rutherford wouldn't believe it, Einstein wouldn't believe it, even Planck wouldn't believe it.

Li Qiwei is well aware of this.

If they were so easily persuaded, they would never have become the top figures in the field of physics.

Boss, which one of you is not stubborn and paranoid?

Isn't it the same for Li Qiwei in the eyes of others?

He is even more stubborn than anyone else.

The whole world is against this, but he is the only one who insists on doing this. I'm afraid he is the only one who dares to do this.

If it were anyone else, he would have been criticized to pieces long ago.

Li Qiwei took a deep breath. This was just the beginning.

The weirder and more bizarre physics has yet to emerge.

Bohr, who was standing next to him, suddenly walked up to Li Qiwei.

He said with a tone of worship: "Professor Bruce, I believe in your explanation of probability."

"I also think that the behavior of electrons is a purely probabilistic behavior."

"Oh?" Li Qiwei stared at Bohr in front of him with a smile.

Of course he knew that the other party supported probability theory. After all, Bohr was the leader of the Copenhagen School.

Bohr was a little overwhelmed by Ridgway's look.

Soon, he figured it out and quickly explained: "Well, I'm not trying to flatter you, I really think so."

“The moment I proposed orbital quantization, I knew that everything I had learned before was questionable.”

Li Qiwei showed a gratified smile. He patted Bohr's shoulder gently and said with a smile:

"Whether you agree or disagree, as long as it is your own independent thinking, I will be happy."

"Come on, there is still a long way to go."

Bohr nodded heavily and smiled like a child.

(End of this chapter)