Go back to the past and be a schoolboy

Germany, University of Göttingen.

Even with the impact of the war, Göttingen still retains the school's most exciting program, the regular weekly meeting of the mathematics club.

Math Club is a free world of math activities.The club is informal and has no responsible person.No membership and no fees.Since the club is in Göttingen, the prestige of Göttingen makes club speaking a very high-level event.Foreign scientists often come here to report their latest work, but more often it is Göttingen's own people who freely give speeches and report their new results, new ideas.

As usual, Hilbert lowered the brim of his hat, found a random seat and crossed his legs, sipping coffee while listening to the speech on the stage.

An old professor in his seventies walked tremblingly to the blackboard, took off his hat and saluted, and began to write and draw on it.

"This time I am talking about ordinary differential equations. Here, the letter x (or letter t) is usually used to represent the independent variable in the ordinary differential equation, and y(x) is used to represent its unknown function."

Before the writing on the blackboard was finished, Hilbert couldn’t read it any longer. He put down his coffee and said contemptuously, “Speech, especially mathematics speech, must be highly concise and clear, just like I’m not interested in what you do when I eat cake. Just pick out your highlight 'raisin'. My dear colleague, please forgive me, you have written so much, I am afraid you still don't know what a differential equation is?"

The old professor was trembling with anger: "I respect your mathematical talent, but you can't be so arrogant as to say that I don't understand differential equations. I have marked it in the first paragraph. I don't blame you if you can't see it clearly from a distance." You, it is unbearable to slander a gentleman."

Hilbert smiled, walked confidently to the front of the stage, pointed at one of the lines with a pointer and said: "My dear colleague, you must have worked at home for a long time to come to this conclusion, but let me tell you, Russian mathematician Lyapunov created a new direction in the study of nonlinear differential equations in his paper "General Problems of Motion Stability". The theory of motion stability proposed is completely used to solve the problem that the disturbance of the initial value of the solution of the equation does not affect the solution of the original equation. tend."

Originally, I just wanted to erase this line, but after erasing, I felt that the following line was inappropriate. Mathematics is like this, and the chain is intertwined. In the end, I directly erased all the writing on the blackboard, and then wrote it as a correct paper.

Hilbert patted the dust off his hands, and said with a smile, "I'm sorry, I accidentally wiped away all your achievements, but it's okay, anyway, I don't know how many years you have been eliminated, it doesn't matter."

When the old professor saw this, his eyes went dark immediately, and he was almost passed out because of being squeezed out. It was the assistant next to him who had sharp eyesight and quick hands, helped him, and waved his hand dejectedly.He left the venue in embarrassment.

As a result, before taking two steps, he was tripped by an unnecessary roadblock and fell to the ground.

The other protagonist of the incident, Hilbert, sat back on his chair, sipped his coffee again, and motioned for the next speaker to come on stage.

The colleague next to him was a little dissatisfied: "You shouldn't treat that old professor like this. He made a lot of contributions to the development of our school's School of Mathematics earlier. In view of the original face, we must save him a little bit of face no matter what."

Hibbert didn't care, and raised his eyebrows at the place where the old professor left: "It's not that I don't care about the face of my former colleagues, but that he really doesn't know what a differential equation is. You see, the direction he left is not leading to the book Is it on the way to the museum, I must have gone to check the papers."

The colleague was helpless, knowing that the other party was such a style of person, so he had no choice but to give up.

Seeing this battle, the young speaker who came next was a little trembling, and bowed tremblingly.

"Hi everyone, teachers. First of all, I would like to declare that the original author of this paper is not me, but the latest research on "Class Domain Theory" completed by Professor Tom Cheng from the mysterious oriental country. Take out your experience and share it with everyone here.”

Despite the lessons learned just now, it is an honor to have Hilbert's comments, even if only criticisms, so despite the worst expectations, young mathematicians from all over the world are willing to go to the Göttingen Mathematical Club give a speech.

Even so, the young man still stumbled when he spoke, and even accidentally lost his strength a few times, breaking the chalk directly. The people in the audience kept looking at Hilbert, their faces full of jokes, Hope to give this young man a head-on blow.

"How about it, August, shall we bet on this poor young man?"

"What are you gambling?"

"Bet on which line he wrote and was driven off by Hilbert. I think it is before No. 30 line. The bet is 100 marks."

"Okay, then I'll bet before ten lines. This little guy is not ready at all, and he took someone else's paper. This will only increase Hilbert's requirements. What a poor little sheep."

At this time, a young man directly took out a stack of marks and put them on the table.

"I want a thousand marks, and I bet that Mr. Hilbert will allow this classmate to finish the speech."

"Weina, what do you mean by that? I know you have some mathematical talent, but who can sit here, who would lack this talent? Young people, don't be too arrogant."

"You are wrong. I am not optimistic about this classmate, but I am optimistic about Professor Tom Cheng behind him. Proud Germans, it is time to lower your heads!"

After speaking, Weiner stopped having invalid disputes with these people. He didn't even know the most famous genius in the mathematics world this year. It can be seen that these people are nothing compared to the old professor just now.

Unexpectedly, Hilbert spent more time on coffee than watching speeches at the beginning, as they expected, but he didn't know when he started to put his beloved coffee on the table. On the one hand, he directly changed to the first row of seats, and his face turned serious.

Seeing that the writing on the blackboard was completed, I couldn't help standing up, clapping my hands, and said in an unbelievable tone: "Speech today is far worse than in the past. When I was young, people were very particular about the art of speech, and the speaker was right There are a lot of considerations about what to say and how to say it well. Young people don’t do that, especially in Göttingen, where I think the worst speeches in the world are given. It's been worse this year, I haven't had a single good speech at all, and lately it's been especially bad. One exception this afternoon, though"

"I can actually see the proof of the main ideal theorem one day, which means that the problem left by class domain theory for nearly 30 years has been solved, and all conjectures about the nature of class domains are correct. In the face of absolute strength, there is no need for any bells and whistles !"

The latter process was relatively simple. Under the leadership of Hilbert, a group of people began to intensively analyze Cheng Nuo's research. In all places, patches have been prepared in advance, so that people can't find places to correct errors.

Professor A sighed: "With the strength of Professor Tom Cheng's thesis, even my unsatisfied students can see it and reason it out step by step. It is really incredible, but think carefully, Kronecker's youth Zhimeng has been proved by himself, and he can also keep improving on the basis, and he has already surpassed us too much in this regard."

Professor B smiled and said, "But it's not without its flaws."

Professor C asked curiously: "The thinking is so meticulous, and every step can be deliberated over and over again. How can there be any shortcomings?"

Professor B explained: "The biggest shortcoming is that he is not a German, and he has never even come to our Göttingen to study. As far as I know, their government has just declared war on us. In the face of the interests of the German Empire, this is the biggest and deadliest. shortcoming."

Hilbert's face sank when he heard this: "Science has no national boundaries. In the life of a country, every country can only prosper when it is in harmony with its neighbors and lives in harmony. The interests of the country Requires a general order not only within each nation, but in its relations between nations—in the life of science as well.”

However, the two countries are in the political background of warring countries. After the meeting, Hilbert not only publicly expressed his high recognition of the "National" magazine, but also praised Professor Tom Cheng who was far away in the East. Renamed his conjecture as "Hilbert-Theorem of Program Class Domain", in a semi-official capacity, on behalf of the European Göttingen School, and recognized Cheng Nuo's status.

Looking at the somewhat decadent duo of professors and gamblers in front of him, Weiner excitedly took Mark away from them, counted carefully, confirmed that the number was correct, and said with a smile: "Gentlemen, if you go back to "Class Domain I am very interested in the study of "On", and I will find that it is full of formulaic theorems and formulaic axioms everywhere, the reason why I dare to make such a big bet is not just relying on intuition, you Germans will eventually usher in the sunset."

The two were not convinced, saying that it was their mistake that they did not contact the professor with the thesis, but there was no need to be so sarcastic. Besides, they didn't care about a mere thousand marks. Professor Tom Cheng from the Mysterious East hadn't shown off yet , where it's Weiner's turn to be arrogant here.

Weiner took the money in his hand, patted it and said: "It's just a coincidence, who made this Professor Tom Cheng my junior, and speaking ill of my junior in front of me will naturally not give you a good face gone."

There are two flowers blooming, one for each branch. Princeton in the United States is happy and worried.

Fan Yinxi, dean of the Department of Mathematics at Princeton, is sure that he was right. This Tom Cheng has made such a great achievement without saying a word. In his opinion, this subject has even been simplified to the point where it cannot be simplified. You can experience the charm of it, instead of a few professors gathering together to gnaw papers like before, and you may not be able to get out of the manuscript and prove it for the second time.

What is worrying is that this Tom Cheng has never answered other questions except for answering common questions a few times. Even the letter of appointment as a professor at Princeton University that he personally invited has been put on hold, making him always think that it is German. Göttingen was cut off halfway, and after many inquiries, he found out that he had misunderstood himself.

It was not easy for him to feel relieved, but his new paper directly put aside their "Mathematics Yearbook" and published it in his own magazine, which inexplicably made Fan Yin feel like a little bitch.

"If you want to publish a paper, come to us. A single punctuation mark will not be changed. The editor will automatically proofread the grammatical errors. The manuscript fee will be fully paid."

Veblen raised his head and said with a smile: "Dean, as far as I know, although Tom Cheng didn't accept our offer, he also didn't accept Harvard. We still have a lot of opportunities in Princeton."

Fan Yin took a puff of a pipe and held it in his hand: "For us, it may not be a good thing. Besides, at Tom Cheng's age, there may be greater academic achievements in the future. By then , our Princeton professor’s letter of appointment is not so important.”

Veblen joked with a smile: "At that time, we will directly invite him to be the dean in the name of the Princeton School of Mathematics."

Unexpectedly, Fan Yin really thought that this idea was not bad, and nodded after a moment of contemplation: "It's not impossible, as long as he is willing to come, and continue to maintain this commentary and continue to produce academic results, we will be the dean of the School of Mathematics. Cheap, when the time comes he will be the dean, and I will be the principal, it won't affect each other."

Veblen was dumbfounded, and said in a sour tone: "If this is the case, it will be difficult for the board of directors to explain, after all, you can be the president of Princeton at such a young age."

Fan Yin disdainfully said: "Those guys only talk about the benefits. If I tell them the value of Tom Cheng, I believe they will be crazier than me. How can there be such a person who can elevate the School of Mathematics to the Göttingen School?" Rank, that will mean more high-class people will come to sponsor us waving checks, the charm of 'Franklin' is not something everyone can resist."

Veblen originally wanted to continue arguing a few more words, but in the end he suddenly felt that what he said was in vain. You must know that Tom Cheng’s age is far from reaching the age of academic peak, and he can continue to do it in the future. It's hard for anyone to say what academic achievements, but as long as he doesn't die halfway, the place where he is is bound to gradually become a new center of mathematics.

In this industry, the intelligence gap between humans is greater than the gap between humans and dogs.

After hesitating for a while, Veblen regained his composure and asked, "But the dean, Tom Cheng has not even accepted our professor's appointment letter right now. I'm afraid it will not be so easy to talk about other things later."

Fan Yin was confident: "It's simple. Didn't Tom Cheng invite us to attend their annual scientific meeting at the end of the year? At that time, I will personally lead the team to invite him and let him see for himself the sincerity of our Princeton."

In this way, similar plots also happened in Britain, France, Italy and other places. People once again turned their attention to the East, the barren soil of modern science. The first Academy of Sciences International Exchange Annual Conference held at the end of 1917 also began to attract the attention of the international academic community.

By the way, although the "National" magazine is not as good as its predecessors "Science" and "Nature", it has already firmly occupied the second echelon, which is also a good result for the Academy of Sciences.

Sitting three times, watching two and fighting for one, the days are still long, just take your time.