Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 229 The Calm in the Center of the Storm

Although Hilbert disapproved of Russell's letter, when von Neumann heard that the letter in the teacher's hand contained the core idea of ​​Chen Muwu's unpublished thesis, he still believed in the letter. Curious about the content.

When von Neumann read this news this morning, he was not blinded by the headline in the "Göttingen Daily" that incited the hatred of the Germans against the British, but directly saw the essence through the phenomenon.

According to the meaning of the newspaper, if this paper turns out to be correct, it will be nothing less than an act of destroying the foundation of mathematics.

They are all young people in their 20s of the same age, and they have all been dubbed "child prodigies" at one time.

Chen Muwu stood out a few years earlier than von Neumann. The latter certainly admired the former, but in his young and energetic heart, there was still some hope that one day he could compete against him.

The reason why he agreed to the task assigned to him by Hilbert, and was willing to strictly demonstrate the equivalence between matrix mechanics and wave mechanics, was also because of the existence of this kind of mind.

You Chen Muwu can't do a good job, but I, Von Neumann, can do a good job. Does that mean that I am better than you?
Recently, von Neumann has always had this competitive mentality in his heart, but he found that instead of studying physics well, Chen Muwu published a paper on mathematics instead?
It’s nothing more than you achieved so many achievements in physics before, after all, you were born as a physicist.

But now another mathematical paper has been published, and it is still so hyped in the media.

This made Von Neumann a little bit unconvinced, but at the same time he also realized that the opportunity to meet Chen Muwu, isn't it here?
He planned to wait for the new issue of "Proceedings of Natural Science" to go to Göttingen, and immediately go to the journal reading room of the library to read the full text, see if he can find the mistakes in Chen Muwu's paper, and send it to him. A Jedi strikes back.

Von Neumann's intention to come to Hilbert with the newspaper was also obvious. As long as the teacher gave an order, he would definitely be the first striker to rush out.

Hilbert's calm attitude at this time gave von Neumann even more confidence.

The teacher can point out that Chen Muwu's thesis is wrong just by looking at the simple core steps.

It seems that, as the old man said, physicists only need to study their physics well. Don’t think that you can understand mathematics. Will laugh at the generous family.

"Teacher, can I have a look at that letter too? I also want to know what kind of whimsical ideas Dr. Chen had that made him think he could negate the great Hilbert plan?"

"Here, take it here," Hilbert handed the letter to von Neumann, and at the same time he did not forget to comment, "It is obvious that this Chen Muwu's mathematical foundation is very weak. He is completely a half-way monk. Some places are too complicated, and some places are too simple. But one thing to say, his thinking is not bad. If he did not learn physics but mathematics, he probably would have To be, well, a third-rate mathematician."

There was a smile on his face, and there was something contemptuous in that smile.

Von Neumann also took the letter paper with a smile on his face. As his eyes fell on the words on the paper, the smile on his face gradually stiffened, and the brows that spread out from the smile slowly came together again.

After handing out the letter, Hilbert began to deal with the work at hand.

After a while, he suddenly felt that something was wrong. Why didn't his student move at all?

As soon as he looked up suspiciously, he saw von Neumann's serious expression.

"What's the matter, John? Why don't you say a word."

"Old... Teacher, Chen... Dr. Chen's argument, I think it is very likely to be correct. The system you imagined may really be incomplete. Hilbert's plan seems to be overthrown. up.

"But I'm not sure if this is really the case. It's better to wait for the full text of the paper to come out, and then read what is written in it."

Von Neumann seemed to see the raging anger suddenly ignited in Hilbert's eyes, so he had to temporarily add such a paragraph at the end of the sentence.

"I thought that you, as a Ph.D. student at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, must have a high-level theory. I didn't expect that everything you said was ambiguous. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. What is there to be entangled with? As for his thesis , There is no need to read the full text again, it is absolutely wrong.

"Let's go John, your mathematical foundation is still insufficient, so your thinking will be biased by this fallacy.

"Don't worry about these groundless rumors, it's better to finish the work I assigned to you when you have that time.

"First prove that matrix mechanics and wave mechanics are completely and strictly equivalent. After this is done, we will complete the axiomatization of the physical form.

"Be sure to teach this arrogant young man a lesson, let him know that mathematicians don't study physics, just because they don't want to study physics;

"And physicists don't study mathematics because they don't understand mathematics."

Even after hearing from Russell, Hilbert remained optimistic.

His optimism lasted until the new issue of "Proceedings of Natural Science" was published, and it was delivered to all parts of the world with the global postal system.

Because before the publication of the journal, the news that Chen Muwu had published a mathematics paper had already been reprinted in newspapers and spread to all directions.

And it became more and more mysterious, saying that Chen Muwu denied mathematics from the root, Chen Muwu declared war on mathematicians all over the world, and so on.

This caused Chen Muwu to attract a lot of attention. Even if a well-known author published a notice in the newspaper before publishing a new book, the publicity effect he got was not as good as this paper.

Physicists all over the world are waiting to have fun, but they are also divided into two factions, one of which wants to see mathematicians have fun, and the other wants to see Chen Muwu have fun.

There have been many mathematicians in the world for a long time. They always think highly of themselves, and always think that mathematics is the basis of science, and look down on all other subjects except mathematics.

If these people can be deflated, then of course it is something that I like to see very much.

Physicists who want to see Chen Muwu have a variety of reasons.

Some people think that "the beauty of the wood will be destroyed by the wind in the forest". Chen Muwu has always acted in a high-profile way in physics. Although he is all right, it still makes people feel very uncomfortable. I really hope that he can make a breakthrough in mathematics this time. Big somersault.

Some people simply object to a series of concepts put forward by Chen Muwu, such as what is light a particle, electrons are waves, electron spin, quantum mechanics, the expansion of the universe, and so on.

Because I opposed these concepts but could not find a reason to refute the criticism, I started to oppose Chen Muwu, so I expect him to be slapped in the face by the mathematics community this time.

And mathematicians all over the world are fighting against each other, fighting hard and fighting against each other.

If, as the newspapers said, Chen Muwu destroyed the foundation of mathematics in one fell swoop, how should they deal with it?

Cambridge University, which is in the center of the storm, has become the calmest place.

Participating in the manuscript review work allowed Russell to obtain the full text of Chen Muwu's paper long ago.

He was worried when reviewing the manuscript, and asked Ramsay to confirm it for him.

The final conclusion is that the incompleteness theorems in the paper are not wrong, and the mathematical building in Hilbert's mind must be demolished and rebuilt from the root.

Russell also held an academic symposium at Trinity College to convey the sad news to the mathematics professors, scholars and students who came to the symposium, and gave a detailed account of Dr. Chen's thesis.

Accepting this fact, the mathematics circle at Cambridge University became the first group of people in the world to start studying how to reconstruct mathematics.

As for the Cavendish Lab...

Russell came to look for someone that day but couldn't find him, and Rutherford called Chen Muwu to his office the next day.

The good student who couldn't think about it for a while said that he wanted to study mathematics was brought up in front of Bohr in this office that day.

Rutherford thought it was Chen Muwu who supervised the construction of the particle accelerator every day. He felt bored and planned to relax, just like he did astronomy and low-temperature physics before.

In his mind, the mathematics that Chen Muwu studied may be similar to Newton's study of calculus, but it is just a calculation tool for physics.

Although the predecessors of calculus have prepared it, there is still a matrix!
This student likes to tinker with weird things, so just go for it, if you can really discover some theorem, wouldn't that be the icing on the cake too!

But Rutherford did not expect that it was not the algebra professor who came to him, but Russell.

Of course Russell is also a mathematician. After all, one of his masterpieces is titled "Principles of Mathematics"!

But his mathematics is completely different from the mathematics Rutherford imagined.

On a whim, he once asked Chadwick to help find this book, wanting to see what the principles of mathematics are like.

As a result, Chadwick brought back three tomes from the library of Victoria University in Manchester.

This set of three volumes written by Russell and his teacher Whitehead in ten years has a total of more than 2000 pages.

Rutherford's curiosity drove him to open the first volume of the book, and he was quickly disgusted by the strange and dense logical symbols in the book.

The symbols in Holmes's "Little Dancing Figures" are nothing by comparison.

The director of the Cavendish Laboratory, after all, still failed to hold on to this book for a minute.

Later, he read an anecdote from a newspaper. The "Principles of Mathematics" written by Russell really started from the most basic mathematics, so he spent more than 360 pages before finally defining the number "1". What exactly is it.

Then on page 379, the conclusion "1+1=2" is proved.

You said it was not good for Chen Muwu to provoke anyone, so why did he provoke him?
Rutherford hemmed and hawed, and did not say anything about Chen Muwu's going to build a particle accelerator until the end.

On the one hand, he didn't want to leak the secret, and on the other hand, he wanted to protect his students.

Calling Chen Muwu to his office also has this meaning, although dealing with mathematicians is a very troublesome thing.

But if the person who caused this trouble was Chen Muwu, Rutherford's first reaction would be to solve the problem for him.

"Chen, Professor Russell came to you yesterday, did you do something strange again? You said you were going to study mathematics, but no one thought that what you wanted to study was this mathematics.

"Don't be afraid of anything that happens, just say it boldly, there is me behind you, and the entire Cavendish Laboratory."

It was impossible for Rutherford to come forward if something happened, let alone nothing happened.

But what the teacher said was very sincere, which made Chen Muwu suddenly feel a feeling of "repaying the emperor's favor on the golden stage, and supporting Yulong to die for the emperor".

"Teacher, it's fine. I get along very well with Professor Russell. Recently, under his guidance, my mathematics level has improved by leaps and bounds."

"Then why did he have a serious expression on his face when he came to the lab yesterday?"

Chen Muwu counted the time in his mind, and he knew why Luo Su came to find him.

"Teacher, it's like this. Didn't it mean that my mathematics level has improved by leaps and bounds, so I tried to write a mathematics paper and submitted it to the Journal of Natural Sciences.

"I thought it might be the editorial department of the newspaper. I was not sure whether my paper was right or wrong, so I sent a copy to Professor Russell and asked him to be a reviewer. He came to me yesterday, probably You want to chat with me about the content of the thesis."

"That's it, I don't worry about anything."

Hearing Chen Muwu's answer, the expression on Rutherford's face immediately eased.

"By the way, Chen, what was the paper you wrote about? Is there any follow-up research?"

"It's just a small innocuous theorem. After finishing the thesis, I have re-invested in the construction of the particle accelerator."

This answer made Rutherford completely relieved.

Chen Muwu's "going astray" is no longer a matter to him, as long as he doesn't go away forever.

A few days later, the newspaper published this matter earlier than the "Proceedings of Natural Science", and Rutherford realized that the paper that had shaken the foundation of mathematics was the one that the good student told him a few days ago "Little Theorem".

So Chen Muwu went to the teacher's office again, and at the latter's request, he talked about what the incompleteness theorem is.

After another half an hour, Rutherford withdrew his previous request.

Chen Muwu spoke very clearly, there was nothing wrong with him except that he could not understand.

Thinking that he had offended Russell before, Rutherford still wanted to do his best to keep his students.

But only now did I realize that Chen Muwu had offended the entire mathematics community.

That's still a fart!
Not to mention himself, even the Cavendish Laboratory or the University of Cambridge may not be able to keep him.

Bless yourself.

This was the only thought in Rutherford's mind when he watched Chen Muwu leave his office.

Everyone in the laboratory also saw this news in the newspaper, and they were also very curious about how Chen Muwu overthrew mathematics.

So Chen Muwu appeared at the Kapitsa Club's seminar after a long absence, and acted as a speaker of cutting-edge knowledge.

As a result, everyone's performance was very consistent with Rutherford's. This time it took less than 10 minutes, and the discussion turned into a simple dinner party.

When the new issue of "Proceedings of Natural Science" was sent to Cavendish Laboratory, everyone was very calm.

No one seemed to remember that Chen Muwu's paper was published in this issue of the journal, and no one opened the journal at the first time, looked for the page number from the table of contents, and read the specific content of this paper.

But just because Cambridge University is like this doesn’t mean it’s like this all over the world.

The letters or telegrams written by mathematicians came to Europe through the postal system of the Universal Postal Union or the telegraph lines erected on the railway lines across the ocean, and were divided into two strands again.

One went to Cambridge University in the UK, and the other went to Göttingen in Germany.

(End of this chapter)