A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 107 Hilbert
Hilbert is from Königsberg, which can be called the "Land of Dragons" in Germany.

Both the Teutonic Knights and Prussia used it as their capital.

It's just that it can't be found on the map now. After the end of World War II, according to the "Potsdam Agreement", Konigsberg became the land of the Soviet Union, and now it has become a Russian enclave-Kaliningrad.

These are all complicated political and military issues in the follow-up. In addition, after the war, Germany promoted "anti-government education" and deliberately downplayed the concept of "Prussia". In fact, many people have gradually forgotten Königsberg.

However, Königsberg's position in German history is still very prominent. Hilbert's fellow countrymen include the great German philosopher Kant, Lavach who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Goldbach who proposed the famous mathematical conjecture, and the famous mathematician Home, Einstein's teacher Minkowski and so on.

There is also the famous "Seven Bridges of Königsberg Problem" here, which was solved by Euler, the god of mathematics, and thus initiated the research of topology.

Now Hilbert has become famous. In 1900, not only Lord Kelvin proposed the "two dark clouds" of physics, which directly led to the two major killers of physics, quantum mechanics and relativity.

In 1900, Hilbert also delivered a famous speech titled "Mathematical Problems" at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris. Based on the achievements and development trends of mathematics research in the past, especially in the nineteenth century, he proposed a very famous 23 the most important mathematical problem.

Later generations will collectively refer to them as "Hilbert problem".

These 23 Hilbert problems were praised by Minkowski: "He provided a navigation map for the development of mathematics in the new century".

Fifty years later, at a meeting of the American Mathematical Society, the famous mathematician Herman Weyl of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton also said: "In the past 50 years, we mathematicians It’s against this map that we measure our progress.”

In short, in 1900, Lord Kelvin and Hilbert almost pointed out the development direction for the Department of Physics and Mathematics respectively, and their contributions were very great.

As a mathematical guide, Hilbert's vision is naturally extremely accurate.

So when he saw Li Yu's paper, he immediately began to read it carefully.

But Hilbert read very slowly, unlike most mathematicians.

It is reasonable to say that mathematics is the most difficult major in college, not one of them.

Many people who do professional counseling for the college entrance examination or postgraduate entrance examination must have said: Mathematics majors are the most brain-hungry.

It really is "brain-eating". If you want to learn mathematics, it really depends on your IQ.

Generally, people who do mathematics have super super fast brains, and ordinary people can't catch up with their thinking at all, but Hilbert is just the opposite, his brain is quite slow...

Even dare to say the same problem, if Gauss can solve it in one day, Hilbert needs at least ten days.

But Hilbert’s strengths are not here. Although Hilbert’s brain is slow and he is slow to understand things, once he understands a certain new mathematical idea, he can study very, very deeply and expand very, very broadly. .

This is his unique skill.Otherwise, he could become one of the greatest mathematicians in the early twentieth century, and naturally it would not be in vain.

To make an inappropriate analogy, it is a bit like Zeng Guofan, the kind of person whose brain is not very fast, but after mastering it, he is very powerful.

It's not that Zeng Guofan once recited "The Story of Yueyang Tower", and even the thief on the beam had memorized it. He was so angry that the thief jumped down from the beam and recited it for him. ...", from the beginning to the end, and then opened the door and walked away, not forgetting to sneer: "Idiot! Bah! Still studying? Why don't you just go home and herd the cows!"

The situation between the two is indeed somewhat similar...

When Koch of Sweden and Pierno of Italy finished their papers and wrote their review comments and sent them to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Professor Hilbert had just finished reading the fractal part, and he was struggling to study the "carp effect" in chaos theory. "where! (In the paper, Li Yu still used the "ant nest effect".)
Until a few days later when he was going to class, he hadn't thoroughly researched it, so he had to study this problem with his mathematics department students in class.

At the end of the day, the students understood everything, but Hilbert still didn't fully understand it.The anxious students started to go up and tell Hilbert.

——Anyway, the students are used to it. Western universities in this era pay attention to free discussion, and Hilbert has no airs. If there is a problem, he must understand it.

When his students had new ideas, they often had to explain them to him. When Hilbert and other students sat under the stage and listened to the lectures, the other students understood it, but he often still couldn't understand it.

Then the students have to sweat profusely and continue to explain to him until he understands it.

It's quite interesting.

After several students flipped through the explanation, Hilbert finally slapped his thigh: "I understand!"

OK!This is just great!As long as our Professor Hilbert passes this level in his brain, it really means that there is no problem.

After Hilbert thoroughly understood this set of fractal and chaos theory, he began to shout wonderfully.

He is not an old-fashioned person. This kind of theory that combines microcosm and macrocosm, mathematics and reality makes him feel the beauty of mathematics the most.

And when he looked back at the author of the paper, Li Yu's name really surprised him. He had also heard about Li Yu's deeds before.

Hilbert was surprised: "No wonder, the author turned out to be Li Yu who discovered Pluto."

The students below were immersed in the wonderful mathematical theory just now, and now they were also surprised to hear Li Yu's name:

"Let me just say, this paper involves so many calculations, it would make sense if it was Li Yu."

"I feel a headache when I think about the complicated calculations in astronomy. It must be possible for people with good mathematical ability to do it."

They didn't know that Li Yu not only had a brain, but also a calculator called a small computer in his hand.

It had been a long time since Hilbert had seen such an outstanding paper explaining the nature of nature.

Mathematics has developed into his era, and has begun to enter the field of pure mathematics. He does not care too much about reality, but throws off the distance from other subjects at a very high and very distant position.

Nowadays, it is not easy to see a paper that is profound in mathematical theory and at the same time reveals the essence of the phenomenon.

It took Hilbert a long time to stabilize his thoughts, and after sorting out his thoughts, he wrote a letter to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in which a paragraph reads:
"Among us mathematics researchers, we often hear such voices: Here is a mathematical problem, find its answer! I am very impressed that the author Li Yu can find the principle hidden in natural philosophy through such ingenious thinking. This This is the charm of mathematics, because there is no unknowable in mathematics!
"Of course, it is extremely difficult to know the truth of the world, but I have always had this point of view: we must know, and we will know!"

This is Hilbert's famous quote, which will be engraved on his epitaph many years later.

(End of this chapter)