1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 42: Fighting the Boss
When Li Qiwei said, "Everything in the world is [quantum], and existing physics is only an approximation," everyone was shocked by his remarks.

The professor who asked the question was so stunned that he couldn't even speak, his mind was in a mess.

Although this answer solved his doubts, it gave him new fears.

It turns out that physics has developed for more than three hundred years, but it is still not the most correct truth, but a crude weapon used by humans to describe the world.

This... this is even more exaggerated than a fairy tale.

Especially the last sentence, "This is the Creator's mercy to mankind," left the Oxford professor stunned.

Ever since Copernicus proposed the heliocentric theory and Galileo established the modern scientific system, Europeans have long since freed themselves from the shackles of theology.

The physical system established by countless geniuses through their lifelong efforts has proved that people do not need God to understand and transform the world.

And now, a genius in the field of physics has publicly stated that their theory is wrong and the only reason it is useful is because of the mercy of the Creator.

This is totally unacceptable.

Even the bigwigs present at the meeting looked sideways, obviously shocked by Li Qiwei's remarks, and whispers were heard everywhere in the venue.

If Li Qiwei knew what they were thinking, he would definitely be speechless.

He just feels that the truth of the universe cannot be fully understood, so there is nothing wrong with approximation, as long as it can be used.

Westerners believe in God, so he followed the local customs and said, "May the Creator have mercy on mankind."

I didn't expect it to cause such a big response.

In fact, if he had a little knowledge of European history and the philosophical agnosticism and gnosticism, he would not have said these words.

Ultimately, it is the cultural differences between China and the West.

Fortunately, Lord Kelvin took control of the situation in the first place with his vast experience.

"Silence! Silence!"

"Bruce Lee is from the Qing Dynasty, where people have different beliefs from us, so please understand and respect each other."

"Here today, we are only discussing scientific issues. You can think of the Creator as a higher-level physical theory."

Sure enough, everyone felt much better after hearing Lord Kelvin's explanation, and considering that Li Qiwei was so young, they no longer worried about it.

At this moment, Li Qiwei finally understood where the problem lay, and he looked at Lord Kelvin with gratitude.

The challenge continues!

Li Qiwei dealt with several professors in succession, but he did not become complacent or relax, because the real big boss has not yet made a move!

For a long time, no one raised their hand to ask questions.

Since even several professors at Oxford University could not refute the quantum theory, the people present couldn't help but feel a little worried.

Just as Lord Kelvin was about to speak up and remind everyone to continue asking questions, the silence was broken.

A person at the front of the venue raised his hand and slowly stood up. Li Qiwei looked closely and found that it was Madame Curie.

Madame Curie, 33 years old, still has her charm at this moment. Although she is a scientist, she has a lively aura and is not the stereotype as imagined.

It is no wonder that the entire physics community likes this female scholar. It is like a flower appearing in the steel jungle, which is of course extremely precious.

She just smiled and said, "Bruce, I have wanted to meet you for a long time. I am very lucky to meet you in person today."

Li Qiwei quickly expressed his gratitude and returned the favor to the boss.

Marie Curie said: "I admit that your concept of quantum is correct, but what does 'mechanics' mean in the quantum mechanics in your paper?"

"As you said before, [quantum] is a basic physical property that only plays a dominant role in the microscopic world."

"So [quantum mechanics] is the study of the forces of microscopic particles? But isn't this force different from the force of Newtonian mechanics?"

“How can there be other forces besides gravity and electromagnetism?” “So, even if the [quantum] concept is correct, it doesn’t seem to be useful. These forces can be explained by classical mechanics.”

“Classical mechanics can be used for a single microscopic quantum, and classical mechanics can still be used for a whole composed of countless quantum particles.”

Wow!
An expert could tell whether there was a problem or not with just one look. Everyone was convinced by Madame Curie’s question and nodded in agreement.

Even Li Qiwei himself shuddered. The angle of this question was too tricky. It turned out that the big guys were all so terrifying.

Li Qiwei simply mentioned "quantum mechanics" in his paper at the time, and did not elaborate on the details.

This is because the explanation here is very complicated and the factors of the times must also be taken into consideration.

Historically, the true quantum mechanics was not proposed until 1927, when it was perfected by Dirac, Schrödinger, Heisenberg and others.

It contains three key points: quantization, uncertainty principle, and wave-particle duality.

[Quantum mechanics] believes that microscopic particles have the dual properties of waves and particles, and their speed and position cannot be accurately measured at the same time, so they can only exist in the form of probability.

To put it simply, Newtonian mechanics studies the macroscopic world, while quantum mechanics studies the microscopic world. (Note: This statement is not rigorous.)

Now, Li Qiwei only proposed quantization alone, without involving the following two concepts, so [quantum mechanics] seems very thin.

More importantly, the consensus among all physicists at this moment is that there are only two forces in the world: gravity and electromagnetism.

The other two of the four fundamental forces, the strong and weak forces, would not be discovered until decades later.

Therefore, the current dilemma is that using the existing knowledge, Ridgway cannot perfectly explain Madame Curie's problem.

For a moment, everyone in the conference hall saw Li Qiwei sitting there without saying a word, thinking quietly.

Planck next to him was also worried about his disciple. He didn't know the answer to this question and couldn't help at all.

Time passed by minute by minute, and just when Lord Kelvin was about to come out to smooth things over, Li Qiwei finally spoke, and he said slowly:

“Thank you for your question, Marie Curie, it’s a very good question.”

"First of all, what I'm talking about [quantum mechanics] is no different than the forces in Newtonian mechanics."

“However, these two theories study power from different angles.”

"Recently, I was doing research on electrons at the Cavendish Laboratory, and I noticed some strange phenomena."

“Some of the movements of electrons cannot seem to be explained by classical mechanics or electromagnetic theory.”

"So what you said is that using classical mechanics to explain a single quantum is not feasible."

“But if you think in terms of quantum, you’ll get very different results.”

"Therefore, my [Quantum Mechanics] mainly studies the behavior of microscopic particles. As for the macroscopic aspects, Newtonian mechanics is currently perfect enough."

“Of course, [quantum mechanics] is originally a theoretical framework, which needs more results to fill it. The [quantum] concept is the core of my paper.”

After Li Qiwei finished speaking, Wilson in the audience widened his eyes like bells. He then looked at Rutherford next to him with a calm expression.

So Wilson wondered: I am also a member of the project team, why don’t I know this problem?

It turned out that Ridgway had discussed this with Rutherford privately, and both of them thought that there was a problem with their mentor Thomson's date cake model.

Rutherford thought that there was something wrong with the model and that it could be solved by replacing it with a classical mechanics model; but Ridgway firmly believed that classical theory could not explain it.

Due to their immaturity, neither had yet reported to Thomson, so Wilson was unaware.

Poor old Wei was hit again.

Thanks to [Shen Tu Zhi Cha], [Happy Boy], [Mu Jiang Yin] for their monthly tickets, and thanks to all the book friends for their recommendation tickets. Lao Xu pays attention to it every day. Thank you all for your support.

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(End of this chapter)