1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 303: The old king of physics retires! The new king preaches! The true god retreats!

The news of the second Bruce Conference spread throughout the physics community like a hurricane.

What the bigwigs care about is the content of the conference and how to summarize and predict modern physics.

I'm thinking about the really big things in physics.

Ordinary physics students only care about who will be invited.

The supreme throne of modern physics, each one is an enviable honor.

Starting in February, strange phenomena began to emerge in the field of physics.

That is, there are more and more papers written by ordinary scholars.

The big guys disappeared instead.

The great men of classical physics, Planck, Roentgen, Lorentz, Thomson and others, have already retreated to the sidelines.

The pillars of modern physics, such as Bohr, Rutherford, Einstein, Laue, Madame Curie, Bragg and others, frequently gave lectures in various places.

Bohr promoted his atomic model and explained various problems of the periodic table.

He has even begun to study the problem of electron arrangement and has achieved certain results.

The s-orbital, p-orbital, etc. of later generations will be available in the coming time.

Rutherford continued his research on the nucleus, determined to discover the composition and structure of the nucleus.

There will be no more secrets inside the atom.

Old Bragg and others used the Bragg formula to study the structures of various chemical crystals.

Crystallography has made rapid progress.

Everyone suddenly realized that after 1912, the pace of basic physics finally slowed down.

There are no longer the earth-shaking results of the past.

Instead, it entered a period of theoretical digestion.

The big guys are all keen to promote their own theories and get more people to join the research.

This is also easy to understand.

After all, physics research is not like picking up shells on the beach, where you can easily pick up very exquisite and beautiful shells.

After a short period of explosive growth, it is normal to enter a period of silence.

Relaxation and tension are the way to development.

However, there is one exception that everyone is concerned about.

"Why hasn't Bruce's general theory of relativity been published yet?"

"Yes, it has been ten years this year, and it will soon exceed the date he agreed upon. Bruce must have failed."

“I feel like I can’t publish it.”

"It's also good to apply the special theory of relativity in an inertial system."

"."

Countless people no longer have a favorable view of Li Qiwei.

Even though he had made solemn promises and talked a lot before, when the time came, the other party still did nothing.

Time wore out everyone's patience.

Moreover, many people, even some physicists, feel that general relativity is at most the same as the Bohr-Lee model.

Although shocked, it is still within the acceptable range.

Maybe it's on the same level as quantum theory.

However, reality will bring endless shock to everyone.

What awaits everyone will be the most terrifying paper ever written.

The Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University.

Thomson, Rutherford, Wilson, Thomson Jr., and Bragg Jr. were sitting in the office.

Thomson Jr. is Thomson's son and is currently studying physics and mathematics at Cambridge.

Because they were of similar age, he and little Prague in the laboratory quickly became familiar with each other and became good friends.

Both of them are geniuses in the eyes of others, and they are both second-generation students.

Of course, today, they can only listen to the lecture.

Thomson and Rutherford are Nobel Prize winners.

Wilson, uh, is a senior, and he must be respected.

Now, the topic that several people are talking about is the second Bruce Conference.

Wilson sighed.

Teachers Thomson and Rutherford will definitely be invited.

But I'm afraid I won't have the chance.

"When Bruce gets serious, he really doesn't care about his relatives." Wilson began to complain.

Thompson smiled and said, “Just because someone is not invited doesn’t mean that person’s work is not important.”

"Bruce wants a breakthrough in fundamental physics theory, so he naturally has a preference."

"You do experimental physics, and your focus is on instruments, so naturally you are at a disadvantage."

Wilson felt better after hearing this.

"I originally wanted to beg Bruce to open a back door for me."

"Who knew he would actually be in seclusion?"

"It is said that now no one in the entire King's College London can go to his office to disturb him."

"Bruce doesn't even continue to recruit PhD students."

"Could it be that he has made a breakthrough in the theory of general relativity?"

"I really can't imagine how difficult this theory is that it takes ten years."

"Once Bruce has finished his retreat, I will go and ask him in person."

Wilson opened up and said a lot of things.

Little Prague and little Thompson looked at each other and tried to hold back their laughter.

Teacher Wilson is the big brother of the Cavendish Laboratory.

He is enthusiastic, kind, humorous and a little talkative.

Everyone in the lab loves talking to him.

"He speaks well and sounds nice. He doesn't have the airs of a senior and knows so many big guys. I like Mr. Wilson very much."

Every time there was a new person in the laboratory, Wilson would take him to the Eagle Bar at Cambridge University for a drink.

In his words, "The blues started at the Eagle Bar."

“Without me drinking with him, he wouldn’t have risen.”

"If you want to know whether you can succeed in the field of physics, just drink two sips and you will know."

After hearing what Wilson said, several people immediately became interested.

Bruce's study of general relativity took a full ten years.

For a genius, this is an extremely long time.

Not to mention that for Bruce, the world's top genius in physics, it was an unimaginable period of time.

What's so weird about general relativity?
At this time, Rutherford suddenly sighed and said, "You don't need to ask, Bruce should publish it soon."

Wow!
Thomson and the other three were all shocked.

Young Thomson asked in shock: "Professor Rutherford, is this true?"

"Oh my god, Professor Bruce really succeeded."

Little Thompson's idol is not his father, but Li Qiwei.

The name he heard most often at Cambridge University and the Cavendish Laboratory was Bruce.

Any words of praise can be used on the other person.

He is confident, domineering, calm and rational.
Completely different from ordinary geniuses.

It was the first time that little Thomson realized that geniuses did not necessarily have to be introverted and bad at interacting with others.

Being smart is being smart, and it has nothing to do with any personality.

At this point, Thomson's young mind was greatly shocked.

Under the influence of his father Thomson, he also embarked on the path of physics.

Now that his idol has made another huge breakthrough, he is immediately extremely excited.

Rutherford smiled and said, “Last year, Bohr and others defended their doctoral dissertations, and after they were over, I chatted with Bruce.”

"He said he had solved all the problems."

"All that's left is to sort out the logic and write the paper." Little Thomson's eyes sparkled.

"Professor Rutherford, did Professor Bruce tell us what made his paper so difficult?"

This question also interested Thomson, Wilson, and Bragg Jr.

Hold your breath and wait for Rutherford's response.

Rutherford thought again of Ridgway's shocking remarks at that time.

Until now, he still can't believe it. He feels that there must be something wrong with the general theory of relativity.

Instead of answering Thomson's question directly, he asked him a question.

"George, your current major is mathematics."

"I want to ask you, what do you think is the most difficult field in mathematics at present?"

Everyone was stunned, not knowing why Rutherford asked this question.

Little Thompson was also surprised.

“Well, this question is a little hard for me to answer.”

"I think differential equations are hard enough."

"I heard from my professor that there are still some very unpopular areas in mathematics."

“For example, differential geometry, Riemannian geometry, metric tensor, etc.”

"Of course, the professor said that these directions are among the most difficult in the field of mathematics."

“No one is qualified to do research unless they are a top mathematician.”

“I’ve only heard these terms.”

Rutherford was confused after hearing this. He didn't understand any of this.

He is an experimental physicist. When he deals with experimental data, it is amazing that he can use calculus.

"Bruce told me that the mathematical knowledge he used is probably not known by many people in the physics community today."

"He had frequent correspondence with Mathematical giants such as Poincare and Hilbert."

"So you can imagine the mathematical difficulty of general relativity."

hiss!
Everyone was shocked.

You know, in this day and age, there are actually very few physicists who understand mathematics.

Because current physics is still mainly based on discovering experimental phenomena and then summarizing them in mathematical form.

The knowledge used is nothing more than some simple calculus, systems of equations, or simple geometry knowledge.

In real history, pure theoretical research in physics began with Einstein's theory of general relativity.

Including Lao Yang’s later achievements, they are the pinnacle of theoretical physics.

The mathematical knowledge used in general relativity is certainly not considered the most advanced mathematics in the eyes of later generations.

As a PhD from Huaxia University of Science and Technology in his previous life, Li Qiwei certainly knew some PhDs in mathematics.

The most cutting-edge mathematics is like a mystery even to a PhD in mathematics.

As for ordinary people, there is no need to mention it.

Although the mathematical knowledge used in the theory of relativity is also profound and difficult, any PhD in mathematics or physics can derive it independently.

Doesn’t it seem like a big deal?

But don't forget.

The general theory of relativity was published in 1916.

Physicists at that time did not attach particular importance to mathematical theories.

They just use mathematics as their tool.

Few people study it specifically.

The general calculus used the least popular branches of mathematics at the time, such as differential geometry, Riemannian geometry, metric tensor, etc.

That is what young Thompson mentioned.

Physicists are poor at mathematics, and Einstein used the most unpopular mathematics, so naturally very few people can understand it.

However, after the general theory of relativity became famous and became a household name.

The mathematical knowledge used in it naturally became a popular subject, with countless geniuses joining in the research, and it became popular.

It can be said that the mathematics of general relativity is both simple and complex.

Simple means that the mathematical principles used are very simple.

This is the so-called Riemannian geometry, curved space-time.

Complex means extremely difficult to calculate.

There were no computers at the time, so we had to rely entirely on manual calculations. You can imagine how difficult it was.

Therefore, in order to understand the general theory of relativity, many physicists at that time had to bite the bullet and supplement their mathematical knowledge.

Later, more and more people understood the general theory of relativity.

At this time, Rutherford added: "Of course mathematics is only one aspect."

“The biggest difference between physicists and mathematicians is how they interpret the actual physical meaning behind the numbers.”

"Another difficulty of general relativity is thought."

“When Bruce first proposed quantum theory, he believed that the world was discontinuous.”

"He then proposed the theory of special relativity, which holds that absolute space does not exist."

"These two views are challenging the thinking of all physicists."

“Only by abandoning Newton’s absolute view of space and time can we truly understand modern physics.”

“But it’s easier said than done.”

"In our daily research, we always unconsciously incorporate Newton's classical mechanics concepts."

"Bruce's general theory of relativity throws all that out."

"He said something to me that made me feel like I hadn't actually changed my mind."

Several people were very curious about what the words could have made Rutherford deny himself.

Rutherford took a deep breath and said slowly: "Bruce told me that gravity does not exist."

boom!
Wilson, Little Thompson, and Little Bragg opened their mouths in shock.

I was speechless for a long time.

Even someone as calm as Thomson was filled with disbelief.

The original Bohr model, or even the probabilistic interpretation, did not bring him such a shock.

He gave a wry smile, "Is this Bruce?"

"He really is a man who never stops talking until he's shocked."

"It is hard to imagine how he came to this conclusion."

“I am now very curious about general relativity.”

Wilson stared at Rutherford blankly, and suddenly he felt that he was getting further and further away from Bruce.

I used to be able to see his back, but now I can only imagine it.

"Good boy, Bruce and I won't become two different species from now on, will we be isolated from each other?"

Little Thomson and little Prague looked at each other in silence, not knowing what to say.

It seems that I can only shout 666.

What Rutherford said went beyond the limits of their imagination.

"Gravity doesn't exist?"

"You're kidding."

Perhaps Cavendish and other five people in the world were the only ones who had a glimpse of the general theory of relativity.

More people don't take it seriously.

The so-called general theory of relativity is just a supplement to the special theory of relativity.

At this moment, Ridgway was in his office at King's College London, tearing apart the theory of general relativity.

He has no distractions and is completely unaffected by the outside world.

I don't care about the outside world's evaluation and doubts about myself.

Their expectations, curiosity, calmness, contempt and other attitudes are all meaningless.

No one can stop the rise of great people.

And in this life, Li Qiwei will surpass greatness and become the only true God!

(End of this chapter)