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

Li Yu saw that the two big guys were so enthusiastic, so he sent a telegram to ask Boltzmann in Vienna and Pierre Curie in France.

The two big guys also didn't expect that the British would start a quarrel. Fortunately, the French side immediately helped coordinate the transfer of half a gram of radium, and finally the two Nobel laureates didn't really get red-faced over this matter.

However, Ramsay and Rutherford did have some rifts that were difficult to resolve.

But after all, Ramsay is older, and he and Rutherford will not have much academic interaction in the future.

It can be seen that the attractiveness of radium is so great that even top scientists are competing for it.

Li Yu used it to quietly kill Kozlov, the annoying Russian cultural relics dealer. It can be regarded as using the most advanced "scientific method" at present, and absolutely no one knows about it.

Kozlov will definitely be happy to death if he gets the radium water, well, happy to death.

During his few days in Manchester, Rutherford also took Li Yu to attend an honorary citizen awarding ceremony specially organized for him by the city of Manchester in recognition of his winning the Turin Academy of Sciences Prize.

Rutherford even proudly showed off the car he just bought to Li Yu: "This is a Uersli-Sidli car shipped from the Czech Republic. I just bought it for 150 pounds."

Li Yu had never heard of this brand, so it didn't matter. Anyway, there are so many car brands now.

As for the price, it is not particularly high, but it has reached one-fifth of Rutherford's salary.

Rutherford himself had never experienced poverty since he received a scholarship to go to school, but he had also never been truly wealthy.

Rutherford's prize from the Turin Academy of Sciences was 400 pounds, which was considered a small sum of money nowadays.

Rutherford drove the car and said happily: "This car drives at an average of about 14 miles per hour in the countryside. On a flat road, it can reach 25 miles per hour. If necessary, it can even reach 35-40 miles!" But I’m not keen on letting my beloved car speed down the road and pay a hefty fine if I’m caught doing it.”

Li Yu said with a smile: "The police don't have speed measuring devices. There's nothing to worry about. We can't rely solely on subjective judgment."

"They just rely on subjective judgment," Rutherford said. "Sometimes I only drive 25 miles per hour, and they say I am suspected of speeding, affecting road safety in Manchester, and disturbing the ladies on the carriage."

Li Yu asked: "So, you have already paid the ticket?"

"Yes," said Rutherford, "at a pound a time, it's depressing!"

Rutherford is still very careful with his budget. To really solve the money problem, he must at least wait until the Nobel Prize is received.

The awarding of honorary citizenship is a very brief ceremony that ends quickly.Rutherford obviously wanted to go for a drive today, and when he returned, he was still praising Li Yu for several very creative design patents in the automobile industry.

When he returned to the laboratory again, he encountered several students asking questions. After Rutherford patiently answered them, he actually took a seat in the laboratory.

Li Yu said: "The professor is indeed a good teacher."

Rutherford said directly: "After spending some time with the critical Canadian students, everything here makes people feel particularly friendly and refreshing."

Well, if he had said this 100 years later, he would have been scolded to death.

After seeing the instruments in the laboratory, Li Yu said: "Professor's experimental equipment for rays and alpha particles seems to be ready."

Rutherford said: "It's a pity that operating them cannot be carried out without several of my assistants, especially Geiger. This experiment requires measuring and observing tens of thousands of particles. Without him, I really couldn't design it." Excellent experimental solution.”

Li Yu said: "I understand that we need to be able to observe individual alpha particles."

Without equipment such as a Geiger counter, alpha particle scattering experiments would be impossible.

It seems that Rutherford does not have the conditions to conduct experiments now.

Rutherford said: "I already have some conjectures in my mind. For example, the inside of an atom is probably a miniature solar system. The nucleus is like the sun, which is the center; the electrons are like planets, rotating around the sun. Although there are still many questions, But this idea has been lingering in my mind for a long time, but the confusion prevented me from making a decision."

Li Yu understood Rutherford's confusion, "If the interior of the atom is really a planetary system, and the electrons move in a circle, according to Maxwell's electromagnetic theory, an electromagnetic field will be generated and energy will be released at the same time. As energy is lost, the electrons will become more and more It gets closer and closer to the nucleus, and finally hits the nucleus. If calculated mathematically, this process is too short to be imagined."

"This is my biggest headache. If this were the case, the world would not exist. So without enough experimental data, I dare not make any inferences at all," Rutherford sighed, "But I really don't like this Pure mathematical reasoning is obviously not physical enough. In my opinion, the most direct way is to use experiments to observe strong evidence. As long as the nucleus can be broken, everything is self-evident."

The idea of ​​breaking the atomic nucleus was not Rutherford's first thought, but he actually put it into practice.

Of course, extremely sophisticated experiments, very clever design plans, and long-term analysis of the results are required.Under the current theoretical and experimental basis, it is extremely difficult to solve this problem.

You can imagine this: in a room filled with various furniture, shoot aimlessly into the room through the open doors and windows.Then make some judgments about the furniture based on the scattered small pieces of wood.And it was obviously tricky to tell whether the splinters had been knocked off the grand piano or the sideboard.

And this is the question Rutherford faces that needs to be explored.

Anyway, experimental physics is really hard to do without a creative mind and excellent hands-on ability.

Moreover, even if Rutherford proposed an atomic nuclear model, it would soon be broken and its survival time would be less than a year.

Because the atomic stability problem Li Yu mentioned is still unexplainable - this was one of the four major problems in physics at the beginning of the [-]th century.

In short, after this period of getting along with Li Yu, Rutherford admired Li Yu's knowledge and insight. Before that, he only thought that Li Yu was a physicist who preferred pure theory. He did not expect that his understanding of physics was The knowledge is quite profound.

Rutherford felt that there was something strange about Li Yu's words and deeds, but he couldn't tell what it was.

Li Yu could no longer stay in the UK. Before leaving, he wished him well and said, "I hope everything goes well for the professor."

Rutherford said: "The University of Manchester has prepared a telegraph system for me, and we will communicate by telegraph in the future."

-

When boarding the ship, Li Yu discovered that Freud was also on the same ship.

Li Yu stepped forward and asked, "Mr. Freud, why are you going to the United States?"

Freud said: "Several universities in the United States invited me to give some lectures on psychoanalysis. I didn't want to go, but the salary they offered was really attractive."

This is what America is like now. Even second-rate scientists and artists in Europe are absolutely top-notch in the United States.

Li Yu asked again: "What university?"

Floyd said: "Clark University and Stanford University further away, oh, the one with the high salary is Stanford University. Alas, that place is a desert. I can't believe that Americans would build a university there."

Li Yu said: "As far as I know, Stanford University's enrollment is pretty good."

Floyd said: "After all, the school board has money. Mr. Stanford was the person in charge of building the Pacific Railroad. I can't imagine how much money he made in this project." Stanford is a very successful businessman, and he is building this railway. When the U.S. super-large railway was built, he negotiated with the U.S. government and declared that the railway was very important, leading the U.S. government to agree to invest half of the construction cost.

Stanford used his personal connections to become the actual leader of the Pacific Railroad Construction Company.

This is just the first step.

Stanford then created a separate company to provide materials and labor to the railroad.

Here comes the key point: Since he is the owner of two companies at the same time, it is easy for one company to sell materials and labor services to the other at double the price.The government nominally contributed half of the money, but actually paid for all the costs, while Stanford itself recovered all of its own costs.

What is a white wolf with empty gloves!
After some operations, Stanford made huge profits.

But misfortune lies where blessing lies, and blessing lies where misfortune lies.Later, Stanford's only son died, and the old couple suddenly became hopeless. There was no heir to the huge wealth they had accumulated, so they directly invested in the construction of Stanford University.

The ship arrived in New York Harbor, and Floyd prepared to rest for two days before heading to Clark University.

He also happened to be staying at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

The next day, while having breakfast together in a restaurant, Freud saw a poster: "Barnum's Circus has come to New York with exhibits that shocked countless people! Everyone is welcome to visit, and tickets are only $80. point."

"Want to go and see it together?" Floyd asked.

Li Yu asked back: "Mr. Freud is interested in circus performances?"

"No, but their exhibits moved me. Look," Freud showed the poster to Li Yu, pointed at it and said, "In addition to the Fiji mermaid and the Siamese conjoined twins, they actually exhibited Cromwell’s head.”

"Cromwell's head?" Li Yu asked in surprise, and immediately took the poster.

Cromwell is naturally very famous. He is a representative figure of the British bourgeois revolution. He is known as the first "Defender" in Britain and he also sent Charles I to the guillotine.

However, after Charles II came to power, he hated Cromwell for killing his father. He ordered Cromwell's body, which had been dead for two years, to be exhumed and hung on the gallows, and then beheaded in public.

Later, Cromwell's head was lifted up with a spear and hung on the top of Westminster Abbey for a long time.

It was not until 1685, after Charles II died and James II came to power, that his head was blown off by a strong wind.

A guard picked it up and secretly sold it to a collector in Switzerland. From then on, Cromwell's head began a wandering career for more than 200 years.

Li Yu said: "Everything on display looks very interesting."

"Well, this is a kind of mass psychology," Freud said without departing from his old line of business. "Barnum was a legendary businessman during his lifetime, so it's not a bad idea to go and see this exhibition."

Barnum was the first American king of hype and circus king.

His life was quite exciting, but what is more interesting and well-known is the psychological "Barnum Effect" named after him.

Li Yu said: "Mr. Freud, I have heard such a story. A scholar conducted a personality evaluation on students and sent each student a questionnaire, and then all forty students scored very high scores."

"Impossible!" Freud said flatly, "No one can complete personality evaluations of so many people in a short period of time."

Li Yu said: "But the result is that all students think that the scholar's evaluation is too accurate, and they are talking about themselves."

Freud was even less convinced: "How did he do it?"

Li Yu said: "It's very simple. The questionnaires received by every student are actually the same."

Floyd put down his pipe: "They're all the same?!"

"Yes!" Li Yu said, "Everyone's questionnaire has the same questions, such as:
You have a great need for love and appreciation from others;
You are self-disciplined on the outside, but insecure on the inside;

You often wonder if you have done something wrong;
You like change and feel dissatisfied when restricted;

You are proud of your independent thinking and do not trust others easily;

Sometimes you are outgoing and kind, sometimes you are introverted and cautious, etc. "

Freud suddenly realized: "Every one of them is an ambiguous and unclear judgment."

Li Yu smiled and said: "So you know why students get high scores."

Freud, who was in psychology after all, was quick to say: "It seems to follow from this example that people mistake vague and sufficiently general descriptions for tailor-made ones."

Li Yu said: "Everyone is self-centered. The reason why charlatans, fortune tellers, and horoscope experts are able to run rampant in the world depends on this mentality."

Freud said: "In academic terms, this is a classic personal cognitive fallacy."

He spoke too academically, and later this phenomenon became known as the "Barnum effect."

Freud continued: "The example you gave is very interesting, and I will try it myself when I return to Vienna."

Li Yu said: "I think this kind of experiment will be the same wherever it is done."

"It makes sense," Floyd said. "At Clark and Stanford, I'll quote directly."

After breakfast, they went to see the circus show and exhibition.

Li Yu had never seen a circus in his life, but after entering the big tent, he found that there were many people and it was quite popular.

He was more interested in the exhibition. In a small exhibition next to the big shed, Li Yu saw Cromwell's head, which was a bit scary to be honest.

In addition, there are also Fijian mermaids who appeared frequently in various "unsolved mysteries of the world" in street stall literature decades later.

——This thing is a world-class fraud.

In fact, Barnum made it by sewing part of a monkey's torso and head together with the back half of a fish, and then covering it with mud and paper mache.

Such a crude and shoddy gadget actually deceived some people who did not know the truth for decades, and provided continuous creative inspiration for street stall literature.

There have always been various legends about mermaids in Europe, but now, many people believe them to be true.