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

Chapter 503
Although both Einstein and Li Yu refuted Planck at the meeting, the relationship between them in private was still good.The next day, several people invited Rutherford to have dinner together in a restaurant.

There is no doubt that the food in the restaurant is still in the strong French style, but with a lot of chocolate, especially the hot chocolate drink that was rare in Li Yu's previous life - full of calories.

Einstein envied: "If I could eat Belgian chocolate every day, I would even be a Belgian."

Li Yu said with a smile: "There is a great literary giant in China who once said, 'If you eat three hundred lychees a day, you will grow up to be a Lingnan native.' Mr. Einstein feels this way now."

Einstein put down the hot chocolate and said, "I am completely impressed by your literary accomplishments."

Li Yu said: "Just memorize it casually."

Rutherford said: "I heard that King Louis XV of France often made his mistress Madame Pompidou drink hot chocolate and cream of mushroom soup because it was said that doing so would arouse the beauty's sexual desire."

Einstein was immediately interested when he heard this palace secret and asked: "How is the effect?"

Rutherford said: "It is a pity that King Louis XV achieved nothing except his growing figure."

Einstein said in frustration: "What a pity!"

Li Yu said: "King Louis XV seems to have fallen in love with another Madame Du Barry later."

Madame DuBarry was a promiscuous woman in Paris's upper class society, and there is quite a story.

Rutherford said: "I once read a best-selling novel from the [-]th century called The Life of the Comtesse du Barry, in which there is a scene in which Madame du Barry restores King Louis' glory with special chocolate. "

Li Yu was amazed: "It turns out that European courts are also in such chaos... Oh, it's quite interesting."

Li Yu originally wanted to say "it's a complete mess" but stopped.

Einstein smiled and said: "Don't be embarrassed! Everyone knows about the royal family's indiscriminate relationship between men and women, just say it casually."

"That's right," Rutherford said, "They are even proud of it. Wouldn't it be boring if others couldn't find out about the relationship between men and women? In your Chinese words, it's like walking at night wearing expensive clothes, and others can't see it. arrive."

Li Yu said: "I walk at night in brocade clothes."

Rutherford didn't understand Chinese, "That's what it means anyway."

Li Yu suddenly thought: "Mr. Rutherford, your alpha particle scattering experiment should have results, right?"

Rutherford nodded and said, "I'm preparing a paper that will be released publicly in a few months."

Planck was surprised: "Why didn't I hear you mention this at the Solvay Conference?"

Rutherford said: "Because this is also a very disruptive result."

Li Yu smiled and said: "You are afraid that if two earthquakes come together, everyone will not be able to accept it."

"It can be understood this way," Rutherford said. "After two years of experiments, I have obtained very complete data. Although it is more troublesome to make statistics, the results are very clear. That is, among atoms, the nucleus only accounts for a very small amount." volume."

Li Yu knew it, but neither Planck nor Einstein had heard of it.

Einstein asked: "How small?"

Rutherford said: "After calculation, the diameter of the atomic nucleus is about one ten thousandth of the diameter of the atom, and the volume of the nucleus is only about one trillionth of the volume of the atom."

Planck was quite surprised: "Such a disparity! What kind of strange structure is this?"

"What's even more amazing is that even though the nucleus is so small, it accounts for most of the atom's mass," Rutherford said.

Planck had already imagined what it would be like: "It seems a lot like the solar system."

Rutherford said: "I am going to name it after this. The structure of the atom is really like the solar system. In the extremely vast and huge space, there are only a few small masses."

Planck said: "Professor Thomson, your mentor in the Cavendish Laboratory, once proposed a plum pudding model."

Rutherford said: "I have studied Professor Thomson's paper carefully, but just like Mr. Einstein's photoelectric effect must be explained by quantum theory, if you want to explain the scattering experiment of alpha particles, you can only assume this."

Li Yu said: "A professor of physics at Tokyo Imperial University in Japan named Hantaro Nagaoka also proposed a structure of Saturn's rings."

Rutherford said: "I have read Professor Nagaoka's paper, which really inspired me."

In fact, there are still some people who have proposed similar structural hypotheses. Professor Weber, who had a bad relationship with Einstein when he was in college, proposed a similar structure.

But it was Rutherford who proved it experimentally.

Planck said: "What an exciting result! I think this will be an achievement worthy of the Nobel Prize."

Rutherford sighed: "It's a pity that there are still some unsolvable problems."

Li Yu said: "Are you referring to the stability problem? If the atomic nucleus is like the sun and the electrons rotate around it like the earth and Mars, an electric field will be formed, and the electric field will radiate electromagnetic waves. Electromagnetic waves have energy, that is, the electrons will lose energy , thereby getting closer to the nucleus.”

"That's it," Rutherford said, "I calculated the process, and it was less than a thousandth of a second, which means the atom no longer exists."

This is the atomic stability problem mentioned, one of the four major physics problems at the beginning of the twentieth century.

This is why Rutherford's nuclear model has had difficulty gaining a foothold since its inception.

But his alpha particle scattering experiment is definitely one of the top ten most beautiful experiments in the history of physics, because its greatest significance lies in revealing the emptiness inside the atom and paving the way for subsequent theoretical development.

Rutherford's planetary model was just an additional conjecture, and less than a year after this model was proposed, it was ruthlessly broken by one of his students.

——The student’s name is Bohr.

While a few people were chatting, Solvay and Nernst also came to the store.

“So you’re here to taste handmade chocolate,” Solvay said.

Plank said: "Mr. Solvay also likes sweets?"

"Chocolate is almost a necessity for me every day. It's the most delicious thing in the world," Solvay asked again. "Can I sit down?"

"Of course," Plank said.

Solvay skillfully greeted the waiter: "Please give me a few more plates of chocolate waffles."

Einstein was today's boss. He actually didn't have much money, and Belgian chocolate was extremely expensive. But he was too embarrassed not to let the waiter serve chocolate waffles, so he had to say: "It seems that you are a regular customer of this store."

Solvay said: "Yes. When you leave, I will give each of you a chocolate gift box. Although the gift box is very similar to the Italian kiss chocolate that symbolizes love, the taste is richer."

The Italian kiss chocolate, which appeared at the end of the [-]th century, is the earliest bond between chocolate and love.

Of course, they are all gimmicks created by businesses. Love itself does not need anything to frame it.

Solvay added: "Let you try Belgian beer again, and you will definitely fall in love with this place."

Strictly speaking, European beer at this time was not allowed on the table at formal banquets, but it didn't take much care to have a casual meal.

Einstein said: "Mr. Solvay's mention of love reminded me of the news about artificial diamonds in Paris."

Nowadays, the price of diamonds is quite high. After all, Solvay was a businessman. He was surprised and said: "Diamonds? Artificial?!" Einstein said: "Mr. Moissan, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1906, is said to have synthesized it during his lifetime. The craftsmanship of the diamond. Many jewelers want to buy it for a lot of money, but Mr. Moissan has kept it secret."

By the way, Mendeleev was most likely to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1906, but unfortunately Mendeleev missed one vote.

The next year, Mendeleev and Moissan died one after another.

Moissan was sufficiently younger than Mendeleev to die young.His death is closely related to his Nobel Prize-winning achievement - the preparation of fluorine.

The discovery of fluorine can be called a very tragic chemical history. Some compounds of fluorine are extremely toxic. Many chemists died trying to isolate it.

Moissan himself had been poisoned several times, and his death was probably related to the experiment of preparing fluorine.

Einstein continued: "It was only after Mr. Moissant's death that the jewelers purchased the research manuscript from his widow. The jewelers hoped to use it to create diamonds, but without exception they failed."

Solvay asked: "Could the manuscript be fake?"

Einstein shook his head: "There is no way the manuscript is fake."

Solvay asked, "What's the reason?"

Einstein said: "Later, the jeweler found Mr. Moissan's assistant and discovered that everything was a misunderstanding. It turned out that after experiencing repeated failures, the assistant thought that preparing artificial diamonds was a wishful thinking and could not succeed. Theoretically, it is wrong. But Mr. Moissan did not think so and firmly believed that his experimental plan could not be wrong. The assistant did not want to repeat the experiment, so he secretly put a very small diamond into the reaction vessel."

Solvay said dejectedly: "It turns out everything was a joke."

Einstein said: "The media at that time made certain claims and released the news without verifying its authenticity. No wonder the jewelers."

Solvay said: "Let me just say that it is impossible to create artificial gold, silver or diamonds. Alchemists are just representatives of the ignorance of the Middle Ages."

Li Yu suddenly said leisurely: "It is almost impossible to create artificial gold, but it is not impossible to create artificial diamonds."

Solvay's interest was reignited: "Really?"

Li Yu said: "Diamond and graphite themselves are allotropes, which are just arrangements of carbon atoms with different structures. If an ultra-high temperature and high pressure environment can be created, graphite can be transformed into diamond."

Solvay asked: "Is that all?"

Li Yu said: "It is not easy to create ultra-high temperature and high pressure conditions, and there are many details."

Solvay finally shook his head: "If it's too difficult, it's better to just buy it."

Artificial diamonds will not be available for half a century, and the current conditions are simply not possible.

After several people tasted some chocolate waffles, Solvay asked again: "Mr. Einstein, Mr. Li Yu, I mentioned the issue about the beginning and future of time and space at the meeting. Nernst told me , only you can answer."

Einstein said: "Time can be transformed, and everything has to do with speed. But I can't answer the question of the beginning of time, but I vaguely feel that there is a starting point for time."

Solvay asked again: "If there really is a beginning, isn't time limited?"

Li Yu said: "The universe is limited, and of course time can also be limited."

"The universe is also finite?" Solvay asked.

"Of course," Li Yu said, "Nearly 100 years ago, Olbers proposed a paradox. If the universe is stable and infinite, then there should be light instead of darkness at night."

Solvay said: "Then there will be no night?"

Li Yu said: "If the universe is infinitely large and there are infinite stars, then no matter how weak their light is, the integral is enough to illuminate the night sky."

Solvay had a background in physics and understood what Li Yu said: "In other words, since the night is dark, does it mean that the universe is not infinite?"

Li Yu nodded: "That's right."

Einstein said: "Based on existing theories, I believe that the universe should be static, but infinite."

"On the contrary, I think the universe is dynamic," Li Yu said.

Einstein said: "Impossible!"

Li Yu said: "Would you like to make another bet?"

Einstein laughed and said: "Why are you like a gambler, you love betting so much."

Li Yu said: "Do you dare?"

"Why don't you dare!" Einstein said, "If I win, you have to pay me 10 francs!"

Li Yu said: "One word is final."

Until the time he published his general theory of relativity, Einstein still believed that the universe was static and even added a mysterious "cosmic term" to his equations of general relativity.

The subsequent story development of this cosmic item is very mysterious and unpredictable.

At first, it seemed that Einstein was right;
It was later found to be wrong, and Einstein himself admitted that proposing a cosmological term was "the most unforgivable mistake of his life";
But going forward, physicists discovered that Einstein seemed to be right.

But astrophysics at that time also experienced many major developments, and there are still many stories behind it.

Planck was a more serious man and smiled at the two young men: "You are a bit like medieval prophets."

Einstein said: "Prophets are witches who want crystal balls."

Solvay asked again: "Two prophets, can you answer the question of why the universe is finite and where does it come from?"

Einstein laughed: "It's too much like a philosophical question."

"I heard that both the Germans and the Chinese were good at philosophy," Solvay said.

Einstein spread his hands: "Oriental philosopher, Li, you answer."

Li Yu said: "I think this answer is still hidden in quantum."

"But didn't you say that quantum is very small?" Solvay asked.

Li Yu said: "I think a vacuum is not a vacuum, but a very noisy one."

Rutherford said: "Even I think your words are a bit profound. How can a vacuum be noisy?"

Li Yu said: "I think there are quantum fluctuations in the vacuum all the time. Maybe the birth of the universe was an inconspicuous accident."

Einstein laughed: "You must have drunk too much Belgian beer!"

Li Yu knew he couldn't continue talking, so he followed him and said, "It's just a hypothesis."

Einstein poured him another glass of wine: "In the future, I will make more bets with you after you drink, and increase the bet. I will definitely make a profit without losing anything!"

(End of this chapter)