1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 365 The essence of physics research, the truth is endless!

Li Qiwei's question stunned everyone present.

Even people who are not in the field of physics are very familiar with the phenomenon of frictional electricity.

As for teachers and students majoring in physics, the first physics experiment they did when they were in school was frictional electricity.

Professor Li is right, this question does seem too simple.

It was so simple that everyone thought Li Qiwei must have made a mistake.

"What? Professor Li actually said that no one can answer this question? You must be kidding!"

"That's impossible. I feel like I can do it too."

"Is there really some mystery behind this question?"

Most people present had no idea what Li Qiwei meant.

Friction generates electricity, does this need to be explained?
I'm afraid even children know this.

But the physics masters had serious expressions, their eyes fixed on Li Qiwei, thinking about the meaning of it.

Nagaoka Hantaro and Tanakadate Aitachi were whispering something.

Yoshio Nishina rubbed his chin with his right hand, thinking quietly.

Because he knew that any question Professor Li Qiwei asked was definitely not as simple as it seemed.

But his pride would not allow him to make a fool of himself in public.

He knew that the generally accepted answer was definitely wrong.

At least, not the way Professor Li thinks it is.

The second Bruce Conference had left a deep impression on him.

Non-physics experts such as Dairi Kikuchi are also very curious about this question.

At their level, when dealing with problems, they are no longer just thinking about solving them, but about learning from the problems and seeing the more essential things.

Of course, they are racking their brains but still can’t figure out what it means.

"Sure enough, there is a huge gap between Professor Li Qiwei and us."

“Although I don’t know what the deep meaning of this question is, it must have a deep meaning.”

At this time, an eight or nine-year-old child from Sakura National Elementary School in the crowd was happily saying to his father next to him:

"Father, you taught me this experiment."

"When you rub the glass rod and the silk, one becomes positively charged and the other negatively charged, and then they can attract small objects."

“Why did Professor Li say this question was difficult?”

Takuji Ogawa touched his son's head lovingly.

As a professor of geography at Kyoto Imperial University, he focused on cultivating his children's interest in science from an early age.

His son Hideki Ogawa is the most gifted among his five siblings.

He showed great scientific talent at a young age.

Takuji Ogawa built a simple science laboratory for him at home.

There you can do physics experiments, chemistry experiments, observe fossil specimens, etc.

Basically, he was training his son Hideki Ogawa to be a future scientist.

Therefore, Hideki Ogawa, who is only 8 years old this year, knows a lot of scientific knowledge compared to his peers.

At the same time, he also developed a keen interest in science.

Takuji Ogawa personally led him to do the experiment of frictional electricity.

Hideki Ogawa found it very magical.

Two uncharged objects can actually generate electricity when they rub against each other.

At this time, Ogawa Takuji said softly:

"Hideki, every phenomenon in nature has its own reason behind it."

“For example, why do birds fly?”

“Why does the rain fall?”

“These phenomena all have their own reasons.”

"What Professor Li asked was the reason behind frictional electricity generation."

"Do you understand it?"

Ogawa Hideki nodded his little head, and it was unclear whether he understood or not.

After Li Qiwei asked the question, there was whispering in the meeting room, but no one raised their hand to answer immediately.

Because this question was beyond everyone's expectations.

Many people are afraid of becoming the laughing stock after standing up to answer.

In such an occasion, if you make a fool of yourself, it would be really embarrassing.

Li Qiwei stood on the stage and looked around.

Compared with Europe and the United States, the Sakura Country is indeed too weak as a whole, which leads to a sense of inferiority in their hearts.

Suddenly, he saw a little child behind the crowd raising his hand.

Li Qiwei was stunned for a moment, then a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"That kid raised his hand, let him answer."

Wow!
Everyone was shocked!

They quickly looked at the other person and found that it was actually a child.

"Ah? Why is there a child in today's meeting?"

"My son is about the same age as him, and he's still playing in the mud at home. How can this kid answer the question?"

"I'm afraid he's here to cause trouble."

At this moment, under the shocked gaze of Ogawa Takuji, his son Ogawa Hideki has stood up.

Takuji Ogawa was stunned on the spot and couldn't even hear what people were saying.

"Nani?"

Then, he just didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Soon, many people saw Takuji Ogawa and guessed the identity of the child.

"Oh, so it's the genius boy from Professor Ogawa's family."

"Hideki Ogawa is not an ordinary child. The last time I met him, he explained to me the differences between dinosaur fossils from different eras."

At this time, Ogawa Takuji had no choice but to stand up and said apologetically:
"I'm sorry, Professor Li, this is my son, Hideki Ogawa. Please don't bother with him."

"He admires you very much and often asks me to tell him your stories."

"I don't know why he stood up."

Li Qiwei was slightly stunned when he heard the name.

Hideki Ogawa?
Is it related to Hideki Yukawa?

Then, the information in my mind explained the situation.

"Oh, so after getting married, he changed his last name to Yukawa, following his wife's family."

"This is simply like a fairy tale in China."

"A man marries a woman and actually changes his surname to the woman's."

The child in front of us is Hideki Yukawa, who will become the first person in the country of Sakura to win the Nobel Prize in Physics.

He is extremely talented in the field of particle physics and has even been praised by people like Heisenberg.

So, Li Qiwei said to Ogawa Takuji:

"Everyone has the right to express their opinions, regardless of their age or gender."

“In the field of physics, sometimes the innocence of children can be even more inspiring.”

"Because kids love to ask questions, and they're often very insightful questions."

Wow!
These words shocked the crowd.

Everyone was conquered by Li Qiwei's heart.

Even when facing a child, the other party always treats the child equally in science.

This is a real scientist!
Have awe for the truth.

If Bohr, Qian Wushi and others were present, they would definitely say: Yes, you are absolutely right, come to two group meetings and you will behave yourself.

At this time, Li Qiwei said with a smile:

"Hideki Ogawa, stand up. Are you ready to answer the question I just asked?"

“Why does friction generate electricity?”

At this moment, no one knew how deep an impression Li Qiwei's words had left on Ogawa Hideki.

This also planted the seeds for his subsequent series of actions.

Ogawa Hideki said childishly:

"Yes, Professor Li."

“I’ve done this experiment before.”

“Although I didn’t think about why at the time.”

"But I just figured it out."

The crowd was surprised.

It is amazing that an 8-year-old child has such expressive ability.

Even if Hideki Ogawa couldn't answer the question, no one would blame him.

"I think it might be the friction that makes the positive and negative charges unevenly distributed."

"For example, glass rods and silk are inherently charged."

"But after rubbing, the negative charges on the glass rod moved to the silk, and the positive charges on the silk moved to the glass rod."

“So, they are electrified.”

Hideki Ogawa's answer surprised everyone.

What was shocking was not his answer itself, but his ability to think logically.

Being able to speak these professional terms at such a young age already makes you better than your peers.

Not to mention the analysis is well organized.

Children do not know the concept of electrons and of course cannot explain this problem.

However, when the adults found out, they didn't have the courage to stand up.

Because Professor Li Qiwei’s question cannot be that simple.

At this time, Li Qiwei smiled and said, "Hideki Ogawa, your answer is very good."

"You will definitely become an outstanding physicist in the future."

The crowd exclaimed!

Nagaoka Hantaro was moved when he heard this.

The last child to receive Professor Ridgway’s evaluation was Bohr, who is now a well-known figure in the physics world.

He made up his mind to observe and train the child carefully.

Hideki Ogawa was also pinned down by his father, and what happened next was no longer something the child should be involved in.

At this time, Li Qiwei continued: "I know that everyone here must think that my question is problematic."

"The phenomenon of frictional electricity is really a classic in the field of physics."

"It's so classic that even kids like Hideki Ogawa know it."

"How could it be possible that no one could answer this question?"

"Since none of you dare to say it, I'll come in person."

Wow!
Everyone in the conference room immediately began to listen attentively.

"Regarding the phenomenon of electricity, our ancestors in both Asia and Europe have made a lot of descriptions."

"Because humans can often see lightning, electricity itself is not rare."

"However, the study of the nature of electricity has taken a long time."

"As early as the 4th century BC, people in ancient Greece discovered that after rubbing amber with fur, amber could attract small objects." "Such as hair, debris and so on."

"In the 16th century, Gilbert, the royal physician to Queen Elizabeth of England, discovered that this phenomenon was not limited to amber."

"The same attraction occurs with glass, diamonds, paraffin wax, and other materials."

"Gilbert named this attraction electricity, based on the Greek word for amber, elektor."

"He was also the first person to create the physical concept of electricity."

"At the time, he believed that electricity should be a fluid that is not possessed by a single object, but must appear when two objects are rubbed against each other."

"This is somewhat similar to what little Hideki Ogawa thought."

Li Qiwei's leisurely physics stories fascinated everyone present.

They have never looked at physics from this perspective.

Instead, the concept of electricity was instilled in me when I was in school.

This kind of teaching that starts from the source allows everyone to have a deeper understanding of physics.

Even a physics master like Nagaoka Hantaro listened with great interest.

"Hey, this is the gap between Professor Li and ordinary people like us."

"His knowledge is so profound, it's like he's standing outside the long river of physical time and understanding everything in physics."

Tanakadate Aiju even exclaimed: "This is the best physics class I have ever attended."

The bigwigs present have already begun to be impressed.

Ridgeway continued:

"In the early 18th century, the British inventor Gray, known as the father of electricity, touched a charged glass rod to other objects."

"After contact, these objects actually produced the same attraction."

"This shows that electricity can be transferred between different objects."

“This also proves that electricity is a fluid, not a property unique to a particular substance.”

"As more and more people studied electricity, it soon became clear that electricity not only attracted, but also repelled."

“When a charged glass rod touches copper filings, the copper filings will repel each other, and the copper filings and glass rod will also repel each other.”

“However, after a period of time, newer phenomena appeared.”

"French physicist Dufay discovered that rubbing a glass rod against silk would make the glass rod electrically charged, and then rubbing resin against fur would make the resin electrically charged."

“Let the glass rod touch a portion of the copper filings, and let the resin touch a portion of the copper filings.”

"At this point, the two copper filings are no longer repelling each other, but attracting each other."

"Therefore, Dufay speculated that there are two kinds of electricity in nature, one is called glass electricity and the other is called resin electricity."

"Glass electricity and glass electricity, or resin electricity and resin electricity will repel each other, but glass electricity and resin electricity are attracted to each other."

"This was the two-fluid theory of electricity that was once popular."

"However, in the mid-18th century, Franklin of the United States proposed a completely new theory: the single fluid theory."

"By the way, this Franklin is the man who bottled lightning."

"He believed that every substance itself is charged, but when there is no friction, the charge is full and cannot show any electrical effect."

"To give you a vivid example, if you fill a bottle with water, no matter how you shake the bottle, the water inside will not move."

"The same thing goes for electricity."

"According to this theory, when the glass rod and silk are rubbed, some of the electricity on the silk will be transferred to the glass rod."

"At this time, the glass rod has excess electricity, while the silk has insufficient electricity."

"Franklin believed that this excess electricity was the glass electricity, and the missing electricity was the resin electricity."

“He also gave the two types of electricity a name that is still used today.”

"Glass is positively charged and resin is negatively charged."

"At the same time, he invented the word [electric charge] to describe the amount and quantity of electricity on an object."

"At the time, people were arguing over the two-fluid hypothesis and the single-fluid hypothesis, because both hypotheses could perfectly explain the electrical phenomena discovered."

"This debate was not officially ended until my mentor, Professor Thomson, discovered the existence of electrons."

"Now we know that when you rub a glass rod against silk, the electrons on the glass rod move to the silk."

"And electrons are negatively charged, so the silk is negatively charged, and the glass rod is positively charged."

“But it should be noted that the reason why the charge of the electron was artificially defined as negative was mainly to follow Franklin’s statement.”

"In fact, we can also define the charge of the electron as positive, so the charge of the nucleus is negative."

"At this point, everyone should have discovered that both the single-fluid hypothesis and the two-fluid hypothesis are essentially side descriptions of electronic phenomena."

"So both hypotheses are correct."

"It's just that single fluid is more convenient to use."

When this was said, countless people present showed expressions of sudden enlightenment.

I didn’t expect that a small phenomenon of frictional electricity would go through such a complicated research process.

During this period, physicists gave full play to their imagination and extended the concept of electricity step by step.

"Now, back to my question."

"I think the answer in most people's minds should be the one I said at the end."

"The essence of frictional electricity is that the electrons on the glass rod are transferred to the silk."

The people in the field of physics in the audience nodded silently.

The standard official answer is indeed this.

Is there anything wrong with this?

“But I think this is not enough.”

"The purpose of telling this story is to tell everyone that the essence of physics research is that the truth is endless!"

"Now, let me lead everyone to continue studying the phenomenon of frictional electricity."

"We can't help but ask why the electrons on the glass rod move to the silk when the glass rod and silk are rubbed together."

"When the resin rubs against the fur, the electrons run from the fur to the resin."

"I can responsibly tell you that to this day, there is still no correct answer to this question."

"Even I don't know."

boom!
The crowd was completely shocked.

No one expected this to happen.

"What? Professor Ridgway can even come up with the theory of relativity, but he doesn't even know the principle of frictional electricity."

"I didn't expect that the simplest question would turn out to be the most difficult one."

"Today's speech really gave me a little stab in the butt and opened my eyes."

Nagaoka Hantaro, Nishina Yoshio and others were also shocked.

The tiny friction that generates electricity is full of mysteries.

It is simply unimaginable that even Professor Li Qiwei, the top physicist, is helpless.

Looking at everyone's shocked expressions, Li Qiwei smiled lightly.

The nature of frictional electricity is still an unsolved mystery, not to mention now, even in his previous life.

There is no universally accepted unified explanation in the physics community.

Because it involves the study of complex conditions on the surface of objects.

It is a special field where the micro and macro are intertwined.

At this point, he continued:

"Europe has already begun to conduct in-depth research on the nature of frictional electricity generation."

“Physicists have even discovered that friction itself is not a necessary condition, but only contact between different objects.”

"Friction is just a special case of prolonged, full contact."

"Different objects have different desires for electrons, but it is not known what factors affect this desire."

"We can only compile a ranking table of frictional electricity generation of different substances based on a large number of experiments."

"The higher the ranking of a substance, the easier it is to lose electrons, and conversely, the easier it is to gain electrons."

"Perhaps in the future, when the microscopic theory is more mature, we may be able to uncover the nature of frictional electricity."

"This is the charm of physics, this is the charm of science!"

"European and American scientists often have a temperament that ordinary people would consider to be nitpicking."

"However, it is precisely because of this spirit that their science has made rapid progress, leaving Asia far behind."

"Also proving the lever theorem, China's Mozi only wrote a few short sentences."

"But Archimedes of ancient Greece wrote a paper of more than ten pages."

"Because Mozi only saw the surface, while Archimedes got to the bottom of it."

"At least in the field of science, I agree more with Archimedes' approach."

“Modern science is about thinking about the world the way the ancient Greeks did.”

call!
Li Qiwei's words suddenly caused the conference hall to fall into silence.

Everyone's heart was filled with turbulent waves.

Is this the strength of the world's number one scientist?
It's terrible.

A simple electrical phenomenon was described in an epic way by the other party.

This profound knowledge base requires, in addition to extensive reading, the deepest insight into physics.

The physics giants present thought to themselves that they could not do this.

But Professor Li Qiwei seemed to be at ease.

What is rare and precious is that the other party does not have narrow national sentiments.

He even publicly recognized ancient Greece instead of praising China's scientific research methods.

This rigorous, pragmatic and serious attitude makes many scientists in the Land of Sakura ashamed.

Compared with Professor Li, they are far behind.

Especially Nagaoka Hantaro, he was most deeply touched because his Saturn model was highly praised.

At this moment, everyone felt the meaning of the word "great scientist".

That is a simple value that transcends everything and pursues only the truth.

All inclusive!
There is a reason why Western science is so powerful.

This kind of persistent belief is the most important quality of a researcher.

Immediately, thunderous applause broke out in the venue.

Li Qiwei's simple opening story convinced everyone.

Although Hideki Ogawa didn't understand it at all, it did not prevent him from being shocked by the story.

His father Takuji Ogawa was even more deeply moved.

If all the teachers in Sakura Country were like Li Qiwei, he couldn't imagine how powerful such a Sakura Country would be.

But he could only think about it.

"People like Professor Li only appear once every few hundred or even a thousand years."

“It is a great honor to be able to listen to a speech.”

Li Qiwei looked at the shocked expressions of the crowd and his heart was also in turmoil.

In the thousands of years of Chinese culture, there is no spiritual core suitable for scientific research.

Science is about constantly asking why, and then asking why why.

Keep asking until you can no longer go any deeper, and that is the ultimate truth.

Today, Li Qiwei finally brought a little shock to Asian scientists.

Only by recognizing the nature of scientific research can we hope to surpass the West.

Otherwise it would just be a copycat.

(End of this chapter)