Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 227 175 Einstein's Smile

At the beginning, Russell was reading Chen Muwu's paper with the mentality of correcting students' homework.

Something looks familiar here...

It's interesting here...

Well, it should be that he combined the previous questions and thinking together.

Not bad, the ability to draw inferences from one instance is very strong.

Then, the smile on Russell's face gradually disappeared, his expression became more and more serious, and his attitude became more and more serious.

Because he saw such a paragraph appearing on the paper:

"As we all know, mathematics is developing in a more precise direction, and has led to the formalization of most branches of mathematics, so that people can prove any theorem with only a few mechanical rules.

"Thus one might guess that these axioms and rules of reasoning are sufficient to determine any mathematical problem which these formal systems can express.

"The following will demonstrate that this is not the case."

Chen Muwu's spontaneous practice after class is worthy of praise.

But if you do the questions, just do the questions. Why did you change the content in the textbook?

The point is that the content in the textbook is really problematic.

This is equivalent to Chen Muwu using only one paper to overthrow all the efforts that mathematicians have been trying to do since the beginning of the century.

Russell thought of himself when he was young. He was only in his early 30s, and the Russell paradox he proposed shocked and panicked mathematicians all over the world for a long time.

It seems like a solution to this problem wasn't finally figured out until the last few years.

It's just that compared with the original Russell's paradox, Chen Muwu's tricks this time are a little more serious.

If we talk about Russell's paradox, it is equivalent to tearing down a load-bearing wall of the mathematics building.

Then the incompleteness theorem proposed by Chen Muwu is like using enough explosives to directly blow up the foundations of the buildings that mathematicians all over the world are working so hard to construct.

Russell just happened to be one of them.

Is this person so ruthless when he makes a move?
But Russell remembered something else.

It seems that Chen Muwu is not only a destroyer of mathematics, he has already put forward many shocking views in physics and astronomy, and even philosophy has not been spared.

The point is, after repeated verification by people, everyone found that these scientific viewpoints are actually correct, not idiotic dreams, let alone nonsense.

The same is true for the incompleteness theorem this time.

Because Chen Muwu had been asking him for advice on this aspect before, Russell only read the paper from the beginning to the end, and he was able to judge that everything written in the paper was correct.

But after all, this is a new view that is very different from the current mainstream view. To be on the safe side, Russell not only checked the calculation himself, but even called Ramsey from King's College.

He asked Ramsey to also look at the mathematics and logic used in the paper to see if there were any errors he had not discovered.

"Professor Russell, is this paper really written by Dr. Chen from Trinity College?"

The expression on Ramsay's face was both shock and doubt, and so was his heart.

As a member of the Cambridge Apostolic Society, Ramsey witnessed the whole process of Chen Muwu suddenly becoming interested in mathematics and logic from this year, from a member of the society who had been a quiet member of the society.

In discussions at club gatherings, he often talked about the plan of the German mathematician Hilbert.

Ramsey thought at the time that Chen Muwu should be interested in standardizing mathematics in the plan.

It seems that physicists are doing the same thing. Einstein, who proposed the theory of relativity, is trying to unify all the laws of physics with the two basic forces of gravity and electromagnetism. together?

This made Ramsey think that Chen Muwu was going to do the same job as Einstein, but before that he thought of mathematics to find inspiration.

As a result, he saw the copy of the paper that Russell gave him.

What kind of inspiration is this looking for? It's clearly here to mess things up!

But the key is that his smashing is well-founded and cannot be refuted.

"Professor Russell, it may be because my level is limited, but I really didn't find any mistakes in this paper."

"I think so too."

"So...does Dr. Chen's thesis directly negate the grand plan proposed by Professor Hilbert?"

"Although I don't want to admit it, I have to say that it is true."

After confirming that the content of the paper was correct, Russell first took up his pen and wrote a reply letter to the editorial department of "Proceedings of Natural Science".

He said above that the contents of the paper that the editorial department had requested to review were all correct, and there was no need to modify anything, so the full text could be published.

After finishing his official business, Russell wrote a letter in German to Professor Hilbert in Germany.

It started with simple greetings, and then began to introduce the core ideas in Chen Muwu's thesis, and regretfully told Hilbert that he started with 1900 questions in 23 and formally prepared Hilbert's plan in 1922 , will be declared a failure after the publication of Chen Muwu's thesis.

After writing these two letters, Russell felt both relieved and lost.

The easy thing is that he completed the task assigned by the editorial department, and what Chen Muwu overturned was not his own point of view.

The downside is that this was, after all, a major failure in mathematics.

Although it has not reached the level that he used to trigger the third mathematical crisis with paradox, its destructive power is only much more than that of Russell's paradox.

I don't know what kind of thoughts Professor Hilbert will have after receiving the letter and seeing the official version of the thesis. For the old man, whether his spirit can withstand such a blow.

Luo Su suddenly wanted to chat with Chen Muwu again. Did he come to ask himself those questions because he had realized that mathematics is impossible to be complete?

He first went to the room of Chen Muwu, who was also at Trinity College, but was told that Dr. Chen left the college early in the morning and went to the Cavendish Laboratory.

But when Russell went to the Cavendish Laboratory, he found out that no one could tell where Chen Muwu, who was not in the laboratory, went.

Even Rutherford, the director of the laboratory, was a little vague. He called his assistant Chadwick in front of Russell.

The latter only said something vaguely. After receiving a telegram, Dr. Chen left in a hurry. No one could tell where he went.

Rutherford and Chadwick talked about him because they didn't want to tell Russell that Chen Muwu went to the place where the particle accelerator was developed.

The two of them wished that Luo Su would stop pestering and leave as soon as possible, so that no one asked what Luo Su's purpose in coming to find Chen Muwu this time.

Most of the people in the Cavendish laboratory are like this, because everyone knows that Chen Muwu has been very close to Russell during this period, and started mathematics without doing business.

In the entire laboratory, there was only one person with a keen sense, and he noticed that something was unusual.

It is true that Chen Muwu and Russell are very close, but every time they say that the former goes to the latter's office to ask questions.

Only this time, Russell went to find Chen Muwu, and found him in the Cavendish laboratory for the first time.

There must be something else hiding behind this.

"Hello, Professor Russell, I'm Crowther, the resident science and technology reporter of the Manchester Guardian. May I ask why you came to the Cavendish Laboratory to look for Chen Muwu this time?"

Luo Su said in his heart, he really deserves to be a reporter, his sense of smell is very keen.

Now, there is no need to hide anything. Even if he doesn't say anything today, the whole UK and even the whole world will know about it after the paper is published in "Natural Science Reports" in a few days.

"I did come to see Dr. Chen. He made a very interesting discovery in a paper, so I wanted to come over and have a chat with him."

"What kind of paper is it? Mathematics? Then what is his discovery, can you briefly talk about it?"

Russell readily agreed to this request, followed Crowther into the conference room of the Cavendish Laboratory, and briefly talked about Chen Muwu's "little" discovery.

After a long time, seeing off Russell, Crowther looked at the notes in his notebook and felt that Dr. Chen's "little" discovery was a bit too big.

Although it is big, it is just a little bad to report.

It may be because mathematics is too high-level, and mathematicians think highly of themselves. Since a long time ago, mathematics has always been less popular than physics.

In addition, the two industrial revolutions that promoted social progress were based on theoretical knowledge of physics, so physicists in newspapers are more famous than mathematicians.

In the nineteenth century, the media celebrity of physics was Faraday.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, there was another world-wide top 1, Einstein.

The theory of relativity is undoubtedly the most top-level physics subject in the media public opinion at the beginning of the [-]th century, not one of them.

Quantum mechanics can't beat it, and low-temperature physics, which mobilized the enthusiasm of the people in the UK some time ago, can't beat it either.

Although Chen Muwu has been frequently published in British newspapers because of physics, astronomy, and last year's hottest low-temperature physics, he was even dubbed "smarter than Einstein" by reporters with ulterior motives. .

But if you randomly interview passers-by on the streets of the UK and ask them who is the smartest person in the world, at least half of them will give Einstein's answer.

Of course, the answer given by the remaining half was not Chen Muwu, but Newton.

"Dr Chen, University of Cambridge Proves Hilbert Wrong".

The title was written on paper, and after some thought, Crowther drew a horizontal line across it.

He thinks that not many British newspaper readers know that there is a mathematician named Hilbert in Germany, even though he is now the world's leading figure in mathematics.

"Dr. Chen overthrows the mathematics building", "Dr. Chen rebuilds the foundation of mathematics"...

These topics are too big, and it is easy for Chen Muwu to be regarded as a target of criticism.

And for ordinary people who can't even calculate multiplication, no one cares whether the foundation of mathematics has been subverted. As long as one plus one still equals two, and one pound can still be exchanged for 240 pence, their daily life will not be affected. Influence.

Both Trinity graduates and Cavendish labs, Crowther didn't want to push his Kapitsa friend into the limelight.

He suddenly had an idea and thought of how the British media reported last year that the Royal Institute had made progress in low-temperature physics.

"Under Russell's guidance, doctoral students at Cambridge University shattered Germans' unrealistic mathematics dream".

Blurring his achievements in mathematics, focusing on the two British elements of Russell and Cambridge University, and then targeting Hilbert's German identity.

Crowther felt that he had picked up a good news headline, which would definitely help the "Manchester Guardian" sell well.

Just as he thought, the newspaper that published this news report was not only published earlier than the "Journal of Natural Sciences" that published Chen Muwu's paper, but also was quickly reprinted by other newspapers.

For the uninitiated, England beat Germany again.

But for those who understand mathematics, everyone is looking forward to the publication of the latest issue of "Proceedings".

Crowther's report made Chen Muwu's papers get the same treatment as well-known writers.

Before the book came out, the notices in the newspapers had already made people look forward to it.

News travels even faster than international letters travel through Europe.

Before Hilbert received the letter from Russell, the German newspaper had already reprinted Crowther's report.

Of course, the title was changed to something normal. Although the Germans were rigorous, they were not so rigorous as to belittle Germany along with the British.

In Berlin, Einstein saw the news in the "Berliner Zeitung".

Whether it was Chen Muwu or Hilbert, these two were his old acquaintances.

In his eyes, the former is a student who has gone astray.

In his eyes, the latter was a reconciled enemy.

Einstein originally respected Hilbert, the German scientific predecessor, until the summer of 1915, a few months before he proposed the general theory of relativity.

From June 6 to July 28, Einstein was invited by Hilbert to visit the University of Göttingen for a week. During this period, he gave six reports, all of which were his introduction to the general theory of relativity. Research.

Then Hilbert's interest was drawn to general relativity by Einstein's report.

At that time, Einstein's research on general relativity had reached the final stage, and the only remaining goal was to give the specific form of the gravitational field equation mathematically.

Einstein had mathematized abstract physical concepts, and Hilbert happened to be a mathematician. The two announced at the same time that they were the first to write field equations.

Einstein gave a report at the Prussian Academy of Sciences on November 11 of that year, and submitted a paper on that day, which was published on December 25 a week later.

But Hilbert's report was at the University of Göttingen on November 11. According to the date of the report, Hilbert was five days earlier than Einstein.

However, his paper was published on March 1916, 3, half a year later, nearly four months after Einstein.

Both men claimed to be the first to discover general relativity, and have been arguing about it ever since.

It was not until a long time later that Hilbert voluntarily conceded and admitted that Einstein was the discoverer of general relativity.

So Einstein also wrote to Hilbert, hoping to shake hands with him.

The two people reconciled on the surface, but no one can tell whether they really let go of their hearts.

After the reconciliation, Hilbert once said a very arrogant sentence: "Every child on the streets of Göttingen understands what four-dimensional geometry is better than Einstein. But despite this, Einstein still did this (general relativity) and mathematicians didn't."

Seeing in the newspaper that Chen Muwu actually defeated the mighty Hilbert in mathematics, the beard on Einstein's mouth raised a little unconsciously, and his face was full of smiles.

This Chinese guy is not bad in essence, it would be even better if he could give up those unrealistic and naive ideas about quantum mechanics.

(End of this chapter)