1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 473 Nobel Prize Announcement! Questionable! "Whether it is authoritative or not, Professor Bruce has the final say!"

Almost everyone in the physics community is extremely enthusiastic and looking forward to the third Bruce Conference.

However, every once in a while, there are always one or two people who feel bitter.

Because October is also the time when the Nobel Prizes are announced.

With the sensation caused by the Bruce Conference, even the Nobel Prize seems a little insignificant.

If a big shot wins the Nobel Prize, of course people won’t be too cold about it.

But if he is not a top physicist, it would be embarrassing for whoever gets it.

1921 10 Month 8 Day.

International Bureau of Weights and Measures headquarters, Paris, France.

The current director, 60-year-old Guillaume, had a very expressive expression on his face after hanging up the phone.

First there was shock, then joy, and then emotion.
The fact that such an old man who has experienced many vicissitudes of life and has a high status can make him show such expressions shows how important the matter is.

"Oh my God! I won the Nobel Prize in Physics this year."

"This is incredible!"

The congratulatory call from the Physics Nobel Committee is still ringing in my ears.

Guillaume still feels like he is dreaming.

In real history, Guillaume won the Nobel Prize in 1920, Einstein in 1921, and Bohr in 1922.

Because of Ridgway, history changed slightly.

Guillaume was of course very happy to have won the Nobel Prize.

But then, he revealed a bitter smile and said self-deprecatingly:
"My results probably won't be appreciated by those physics masters."

The reason for his award was: for his discovery of anomalies in nickel-steel alloys that advanced precision measurements in physics.

Translated into plain language, it means: A strange alloy was discovered that does not follow the phenomenon of thermal expansion and contraction.

In real history, this is the only time that the Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to the field of metallurgy.

Therefore, students who will study mechanics and metallurgy in the future will see hope.

The future is expected!

Guillaume was born in Switzerland. His father was a famous Swiss watchmaker and later founded a watchmaking company in London.

Therefore, Guillaume developed a keen interest in these precision instruments when he was young.

After graduating with a doctorate from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, he did not follow in his father's footsteps, but instead chose to join the International Bureau of Weights and Measures.

The International Bureau of Weights and Measures, as the name suggests, is an international organization established to unify the weights and measures of countries around the world.

Qin Shihuang has already given the answer to how important it is to unify weights and measures.

The Chinese liang is the British pound.
If the weights and measures are not unified, trade settlement between the two countries will be very cumbersome.

The same is true in the field of scientific research.

I use feet and inches, you use miles and feet, and you have to convert again when reading the paper.

It's a waste of time.

Therefore, we might as well just use standard units such as kilograms and meters.

This saves time and reduces errors.

It's not enough to just have unified weights and measures, you also have to give precise values ​​for the standard units.

The most important work of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures is measurement, especially precision measurement of precision instruments.

For example, time measurement in high-end watches, pendulum measurement in astronomical clocks, etc.

However, these precision instruments often encounter a problem, which is the error caused by the thermal expansion and contraction of the instrument itself.

For example, the same watch may have different accuracy in Africa and Antarctica, and calibration is very troublesome.

Because many mechanical parts in watches are made of metal.

Metal expands when heated and contracts when cooled, which causes errors in the mechanical structure.

So, Guillaume wanted to find a special metal material.

It does not expand when heated or contract when cooled, and its volume remains constant regardless of the temperature.

Eventually, he discovered a special alloy: Invar.

This is a metal alloy formed by combining iron and nickel in certain proportions.

Even when placed in an extreme environment of more than 100 degrees below zero, Invar alloy will not shrink significantly in volume.

This kind of excellent and special performance is simply a dream come true in the field of measurement.

Guillaume first used this alloy in high-end watches, which immediately achieved great success.

Later, the use of Invar alloy became more and more extensive, and it was used in various precision instruments.

It was precisely because of this achievement that Guillaume worked as director of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures for 20 years.

The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility.

At that time, no physicist could explain the peculiar phenomenon of Invar alloy.

Iron and nickel themselves have normal expansion and contraction effects.

But why do they cancel each other out when combined in a certain proportion?

However, although we don’t know the specific reason, we can guess that there must be some force that resists thermal expansion and contraction.

This problem was not perfectly explained until quantum mechanics was perfected.

To put it simply, it is related to electron spin.

In a low temperature environment, the vibration range of metal atoms is reduced, resulting in the overall volume shrinkage of the metal.

However, the electrons in the Invar alloy will change their spin as the temperature drops.

The spin states of electrons tend to be unified, and because of magnetism, they repel each other.

This causes the distance between atoms to increase, which exactly offsets the contraction caused by thermal motion.

So the macroscopic manifestation is that the volume remains unchanged.

However, under high temperature conditions, the spin state of electrons flips again.

The atoms no longer repel each other, but attract each other, which just offsets the expansion caused by thermal motion.

The above is the microscopic mechanism of why Invar alloy does not expand when heated and contract when cooled.

As long as the principle is understood, scientists can artificially produce various alloys with the same properties.

This is a perfect example of theory guiding practice.

But at this moment, Guillaume had no idea that the alloy he accidentally discovered was actually related to the awesome quantum theory.

After the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics was announced, it instantly caused quite a stir in the physics community.

The third Bruce Conference is about to be held, and high-end topics such as atoms and quantum will be discussed soon.

As a result, the Nobel Prize was awarded to such a seemingly low-end achievement.

Many people feel jealous and a little bit dissatisfied.

"Why does the Nobel Prize always do this kind of thing? It was fine that they gave the prize to Lighthouse Valve before, but now they give the prize to someone who is working on alloys."

"What's the technical content of this? I think I can do it too."

"Although Invar alloy has important applications in precision instruments, it shouldn't be worthy of a Nobel Prize, right?"

"."

Everyone was talking about it.

But Guillaume did not come forward to defend himself.

The result is that there are more and more doubts.

However, physics experts have different opinions on this.

Many physicists congratulated Guillaume.

Einstein even published a public article as soon as possible to support his old senior.

"The reason why Invar resists thermal expansion and contraction is still unknown."

"This may be a special phenomenon similar to superconductivity."

Wow!
As soon as the article came out, it caused an even bigger sensation.

Einstein is no unknown figure in the physics community today.

He has achieved very significant results in various fields.

His support instantly silenced the voices of doubt.

Everyone is very familiar with superconductivity.

Until now, physicists have not figured out the specific reason for this magical phenomenon.

If Invar alloy is really similar to superconductivity, it would be more than enough to win a Nobel Prize.

Everyone also began to truly understand what Guillaume's achievements were.

The other party is not the blacksmith you imagined.

However, this still cannot make everyone fully recognize the authority of this Nobel Prize.

"Maybe it's just caused by a different ratio of materials."

"There is no special mechanism." Just as everyone was discussing this happily.

Soon, Li Qiwei also issued a congratulatory letter on behalf of the Quantum Institute.

But no one took it seriously at first.

Because everyone knows that Professor Bruce writes public letters of congratulations to all Nobel Prize winners every year.

This has become a routine, nothing special.

However, immediately afterwards, Li Qiwei wrote another short review specifically analyzing the problems of Invar alloy.

The title of the article is: "Relationship between the expansion coefficient of Invar alloy and electron spin."

boom!
As soon as the article was published, it shocked the physics community.

Everyone's jaw dropped.

Good guy.

Isn't it a black alloy?
How is it related to the high-sounding electron spin?

"Oh my God! The properties of Invar alloy are actually related to electron spin?"

"This is a concept that has just been proposed, but Professor Bruce was able to associate it with it right away."

“He is simply like a god.”

"Is there anyone who knows, according to Professor Bruce's point of view, can it really be explained?"

"If this is true, then Dr. Guillaume deserves the Nobel Prize."

At this moment, everyone was stunned by this sudden reversal.

What everyone considers to be low-end and unqualified results actually have such a deep relationship with quantum theory in the eyes of Professor Bruce.

I felt instantly taller and more impressive.

If this is true, then Guillaume definitely deserves the Nobel Prize.

Einstein had previously attended a seminar on quantum theory, and he himself had a deep understanding of materials science.

He immediately gave a more in-depth and detailed analysis.

From the perspective of the relationship between electron spin and magnetism, the properties of Invar alloy can really be explained.

Although it's not perfect yet.

But at least it proves the special nature of Invar alloy, which is by no means as simple as it seems on the surface, and involves very profound principles.

Soon, even Kronig, Uhlenbeck and Gudschmidt joined in.

They also tried to explain it from the perspective of electron spin.

This is a disguised proof of the correctness of electron spin.

You can imagine how excited the three brothers were!

Wow!
This dramatic change really satisfied the many spectators.

Everyone had high respect for Professor Bruce.

He did not look down on any scientific achievements.

Instead, he traced back to the origins and tried to use his theory to explain everything in nature.

Some people even joked:
"Whether the Nobel Prize is authoritative or not, Professor Bruce has the final say!"

"Who is in favor? Who is against?"

Inside the International Bureau of Weights and Measures.

Colleagues and friends congratulated Dr. Guillaume.

Their eyes were full of envy.

"Even Professor Bruce strongly supports you."

"Dr. Ji is still going strong!"

Guillaume smiled.

He didn't care about the previous rumors.

He also doesn't care about the congratulations and compliments now.

What he cared about was that sunny day twelve years ago.

At that time, Professor Bruce was visiting Switzerland.

The two met officially for the first time.

At that time, he was only the deputy director, while the other party was already a world-famous physicist.

Guillaume still clearly remembers that Professor Bruce showed great interest after he introduced his research field.

And the other party also jokingly said:
"If I'm not a theoretical physicist someday, I want to be a blacksmith."

Guillaume asked curiously, "Why?"

Professor Bruce replied: "I want to build myself a full body metal armor."

"I want to be Iron Man!"

Everyone burst into laughter after hearing this.

Professor Bruce's humor left a deep impression on everyone.

Guillaume smiled and joked:
"Professor Bruce, building armor is too easy for you."

Li Qiwei shook his head and said:
"Metal materials are much more complicated than you might think."

“We still know too little about it.”

"I just think Dr. Ji's research is very interesting. Maybe he will win the Nobel Prize one day."

Everyone smiled.

Guillaume also laughed happily at that time, but he didn't care.

At this moment, he looked into the distance and murmured:

"I thought it was normal at that time."

"Thank you, Bruce."

~~~
Just a dozen days after the Nobel Prize in Physics was announced.

A paper from the University of Göttingen once again shocked the physics world.

Professor Born's doctoral student Hund discovered another major law of the arrangement of electrons outside the nucleus.

This is a great supplement to the Pauli-Bruce exclusion principle.

The physics community soon dubbed it "Hund's rule."

After reading this paper, Pauli rarely made trouble but was very excited.

Because of the indirect evidence provided by Invar alloy on electron spin, he felt a little uncomfortable and couldn't save his face.

He even dreamed that Koronig and the other two were smiling at him.

"Hehehe~"

"We are right!"

And now, based on his knowledge, Hund has discovered new knowledge of quantum theory.

It made Pauli feel like he had become a giant.

He regained some face.

"Brother Hunt is standing on the shoulders of me picking up someone."

University of Göttingen.

Born looked at his students and said with emotion:
"Pity."

"If you had published this paper earlier, you might have received an invitation from Professor Bruce."

“I don’t know if there will be such a good opportunity next time.”

Hong Te smiled shyly and said:

"Professor, it's okay."

“Even if I can’t be a participant, I want to be a good recorder.”

"I am already very satisfied to be born in the same era as great physicists like Professor Bruce and you."

After hearing this, Born burst into laughter.

This flattery is a bit too much.

But it is really fragrant.

Exclusion principle, electron spin, Hund's rule.

These are the final additions to quantum theory.

The booming scene of physics has fascinated all physicists.

With relativity and quantum theory in hand, physicists are confident that they can explain everything in the world.

In this crazy prosperous background.

The third Bruce Conference has finally begun!

(End of this chapter)