New Shun 1730

When the West is dark, the East is bright.

When the UK and the Netherlands introduced the "Bubble Act" to curb the establishment of joint-stock companies because of the South Sea Bubble; when France experienced an annual inflation rate of 15% and economic chaos due to the bursting of the Mississippi Bubble, Songjiang of Dashun established several joint-stock entity companies and trading companies.

At the same time, around the changes of Dashun in recent years, various wonderful reactions have also occurred in the vast world and in distant places.

Petersburg, Russia.

Euler, who survived a serious illness before, had to face the cruel reality of blindness in his right eye at the age of 28.

Not long ago, he just married a female teacher of the middle school attached to the Academy of Sciences. In the first year of marriage, he suffered the tragedy of blindness, which diluted the joy of the birth of his child.

He almost succeeded Bernoulli as a professor of physiology at the Russian Academy of Sciences, and he had previously served as the chief medical officer of the Russian Navy.

It's a pity that at the current level of medicine, whether it is a professor of physiology or the chief medical officer of the Navy, he could not save his eyes that were blinded by fever and inflammation.

Now, Bernoulli, who led him to St. Petersburg, has returned to Switzerland because of the chaos in Russia's political situation.

His good friend Goldbach served as the executive secretary of the Academy of Sciences and also worked in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The conjecture that originally belonged to Goldbach was brought to St. Petersburg by the envoys returning from Beijing a few years ago.

Now, in addition to serving as the head of the Department of Mathematics, Euler also served in the Department of Geography of the Academy of Sciences at the suggestion of his friends, and presided over the drawing of Russia's first map.

Because Russia was finally going to fully survey the border with Dashun, and Russia could finally draw a stable map of the eastern border.

However, at this time, the issue of Dashun's northwest border survey had not been resolved, and officials from both sides were still negotiating in distant Central Asia.

The news from there was not optimistic about Russia.

Dashun's attitude was extremely tough, insisting that Junggar was Dashun's internal affairs. After Junggar surrendered, Dashun should naturally inherit Junggar's borders and demand that Russia give in on the Irtysh River.

Euler could only preside over the drawing of maps in St. Petersburg, Moscow and other places.

At this time, there were a lot of books and some personal letters on his desk.

One was sent by Bernoulli who had left St. Petersburg, and it published Bernoulli's recent research results.

"On Fluid Mechanics and Its Application in Ship Design"

Another was a letter sent from Dashun a few years ago to the Russian Academy of Sciences, which contained several formulas, including an identity that fascinated Euler. This identity gave him the feeling that it was dug out of his brain and written by someone in the far east, and it defined the symbolic expression of imaginary numbers.

In addition to these letters, Europe was writing a book "Foundations of Algebra", and a basic example was being written on the rough paper: A rich man had N sons, and the rich man was about to die and divide his inheritance. The first son got 100 rubles and the remaining 10%; the second son got 200 rubles and the remaining 10%; the third... In the end, each son got the same inheritance. How many sons did the rich man have and how much inheritance did he have in total?

This book was a textbook he wrote for the Department of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences, not just the Russian Academy of Sciences, but also any academy of sciences in the world.

Before he was born, Leibniz, a superstar in the mathematics world, had a grand vision.

Popularize academies of science all over the world.

Leibniz conceived five academies of science: the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences; the Berlin Academy of Sciences; the Dresden Academy of Sciences; the Vienna Academy of Sciences; and the Beijing Academy of Sciences.

Leibniz hoped that the academy of sciences would not only study science, but also transform science into technology.

Let the academy of sciences be built all over the world, so as to share what they have and what they don’t have, and thus lead the progress of science, and finally compile a set of "Encyclopedias" that can explain everything, and use pure reason to explain the whole world.

The Dresden Academy of Sciences was not built, and the Vienna Academy of Sciences was also far away.

But the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences is the real inheritance under the influence of Leibniz. Its system and construction ideas are the same as those of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, continuing Leibniz's academy ideas.

This may also be the reason why Euler chose to go to the Berlin Academy of Sciences after the political chaos in Russia.

Under the Leibniz system, Euler also adhered to this idea of ​​science without borders.

This book "Foundations of Algebra" was written by him, hoping to become a textbook for the mathematics departments of academies around the world.

To this end, he unified the chaotic mathematical symbols and standardized the specifications of various symbols, hoping to lead algebra out of the shadow of geometry and make algebra truly compete with geometry.

Even though his right eye was blind, he still worked hard on the compilation work and commissioned Goldbach to temporarily resign from his job as a professor of geography and Russian map surveying and compilation.

Because the Duke of Qi of Dashun and the huge delegation he led had returned to St. Petersburg from Paris, he hoped to let the Chinese Duke's delegation take this "Foundations of Algebra" back to Beijing before these people left St. Petersburg, as a gift to the "pen pal" he had never met.

In the letter, this pen pal he had never met hoped that Euler could help solve the problem of calculating the lunar orbit, and proposed a conjecture of "a special solution to the three-point plane orbit of the three-body problem".

Euler had already drafted a reply. Regarding this problem, he said that it might take him ten, twenty or even thirty years to find the answer, and it would be unsolvable at least for the time being.

There was a knock on the door, and Goldbach's visit interrupted Euler's thoughts.

The hostess boiled water in a copper kettle from the Tula Arsenal and took out the tea leaves presented by the envoys. The fragrance of tea filled the room.

When the envoy came to attend the coronation ceremony of Peter II, they visited the Academy of Sciences and presented a large number of gifts to the professors of the Academy of Sciences.

Most of the gifts were given personally by Liu Yu. The prices may not be expensive in Dashun, but they are very expensive when brought here.

These fine teas were specially delivered to Euler. Euler was very surprised at the time and couldn't believe that he, a young man in his early twenties, would be treated like this.

It was as if someone had received guidance from "God" and knew that Euler would achieve great things. In the Academy of Sciences at that time, there were many big names who had been famous for a long time. Euler was not even a professor in the Department of Mathematics at that time, and almost became a professor of physiology.

Soon, the hot tea was boiling, and Goldbach casually flipped through Euler's notes and asked, "Do you want to resign from your position in the Department of Geography?"

"Yes. There are still too many problems to be solved in mathematics. Drawing a map does not require a full-time mathematician, at least not anymore. The boys at the Academy of Sciences can complete such work alone. My right I’m already blind, and God doesn’t know when he will take away my left eye again. Work like drawing maps is not suitable for someone like me who is blind in my right eye.”

"I have dedicated my right eye to geography, and I hope to keep my left eye to serve mathematics."

Goldbach was a little embarrassed. Euler always thought that his blindness was because he was busy with drawing and observing, which consumed his eyes too much.

Goldbach is not a full-time mathematician, he is just a fancier who plays with mathematics, but his admiration and understanding of mathematics are quite high among the fanciers.

Euler's explanation was very reasonable, and he felt a little guilty in his heart. He also knew Euler's current situation, so he nodded and said: "I will solve it. By the way, the Chinese envoy will leave soon. They collected more than a dozen The carriage books. You saw the list they brought before, right?"

Thinking of the must-have list of star catalogs, numerical tables, etc., Euler also thought of the moon orbit issue and said with a smile: "I've seen it. It seems that the Chinese are supporters of the astronomical school, and They are not supporters of technology. They believe that the measurement of the moon’s orbit will occur earlier than accurate navigation clocks.”

"I think so too. Under the conditions of wind and waves, salt water erosion, thermal expansion and contraction, there will be no clock with accurate time."

The dispute between the astronomical school and the mathematical school has been going on for a long time. No one in the Academy of Sciences agrees with the metaphysical school that relies on raising a group of dogs with multiple twins to telepathically navigate and calculate time and longitude.

The astronomical school can be traced back to Galileo, including the timing and longitude method of Jupiter's satellites used in surveying and mapping maps at this time, which are all continuations.

Later Newton, Halley, Leibniz and others were all supporters of the astronomical school. But now it seems that the astronomy faction may be defeated by the technology faction.

Goldbach thought about the news he had just received. Although he couldn't bear to deal with it, he still told Euler a very bad news.

"There are carpenters in the UK who have built a marine clock that can keep accurate time regardless of the storms and thermal expansion and contraction at sea. It is said that the error at sea is only four seconds a day."

"The UK has patents and the technology has not been made public."

"It seems that this carpenter who never went to college is going to defeat Newton."

Euler was a little stunned and blinked his remaining left eye a few times, not believing it.

In such an era, someone actually made a navigational clock that can withstand the bumps of the sea, salt water, thermal expansion and contraction?

The news came not long ago, and Goldbach also just learned about it.

He now works in the Russian Foreign Ministry as a court tutor to the late Tsar, and is also a German.

In Russia, where the German Party was growing stronger after the Anna coup, he had a very important position, and he got the news earlier than Euler, who had been doing research at the Academy of Sciences.

This news made Euler very depressed.

It's become obvious.

The astronomical school's hope of defeating the technical school lies in the accurate calculation of the moon's orbit.

Although Euler didn't know the word "Who is the best for me?", his extreme confidence in his mathematical ability still gave him the emotion of "Who is the best for me?"

Unless the lunar orbit problem is solved, the astronomical navigation school will not be able to achieve breakthrough results.

Now, after more than a hundred years of accumulation, and because of the death of Newton, the accurate star catalog of the northern and southern hemispheres has finally been made public.

All the preparatory work has been prepared, and only the final step is left, which is the lunar orbit.

As long as this mathematical problem is solved, a person who understands mathematics can use an astronomical calendar and look up at the stars and the moon to know the longitude and latitude of this place.

Only then can people say, I know where I am.

Goldbach knew that Liu Yu had written a letter asking for advice on the lunar orbit, and asked about Euler's research progress. Euler could only shake his head.

"This is a difficult task, and it will take at least several years. But I think the astronomical navigation school will eventually win in longitude measurement. Because the craftsmanship of an excellent craftsman is difficult to promote. Mathematics can be promoted. In the end, navigation on the sea still depends on mathematics."

Euler did not know that the astronomical school would eventually fail miserably, and it was hard to imagine that clocks with microsecond errors every day would one day become popular.

So now, he is full of confidence.

Goldbach also has great respect for mathematics, and of course he does not want the top mathematicians to lose to an uneducated British carpenter.

After comforting his old friend, Goldbach talked about the Dashun envoys, which was his business in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"This time, the Chinese side was very tough on the boundary survey issue, and even proposed to take a detour to the Ottoman Empire and even meet the leader of the Kalmyks."

"Her Majesty knew that this was blackmail, but she had to make concessions. The Chinese war in Central Asia is amazing. You can't imagine that five years ago they were still an army at the level of the Thirty Years War, but now they have tactics that suit them very well. They have a larger population and higher taxes, so it's easy to reform."

"The envoy brought back an oil painting, maybe you should take a look. Liu Yu crossed the Altai Mountains, the political flavor is too strong, but it has to be said that it is very exciting."

"He rode on a warhorse, pointing to the gloomy sky, and his body Next to him are soldiers pushing cannons. This is more like a declaration of rights in Central Asia. "

"Your pen pal, like me, is not a pure mathematician, but more like a person in the officialdom. However, his mathematical level is very high. I read the letter he sent you, and the conjecture about prime numbers is very interesting."

"This Chinese count is still mediating relations with France. Perhaps for intimidation, their envoys returning from Paris did not conceal the news that France would send an envoy to China."

"Russia's diplomatic disaster."

Goldbach thought worriedly about the Polish Succession War that had just ended and Russia's upcoming declaration of war on Turkey.

Euler didn't care about these, but thought of another thing.

If the political situation in Russia was in chaos again, he might go to China. From the letter, there was a strong mathematical atmosphere there... At least, that was the case.

Moreover, in the private letter, Liu Yu offered a high price, enough to guarantee a good life for him and his wife and children.

As for the French, they were conducting diplomacy with Dashun, and Euler didn't pay attention.

After seeing off Goldbach, Euler continued to work hard, hoping to revise the book "Foundations of Algebra" as soon as possible, publish it and deliver it to Dashun before the Dashun delegation returned.