Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 232 180 An Invisible Competition
When meeting Ramsay for the first time, Chen Muwu asked an interesting question in front of the apostles of the Cambridge Apostolic Society.

Randomly select six people from all over the world, at least three of whom know each other or do not know each other.

This is actually a corollary of Ramsey's theorem, and some people will call it the friend and stranger theorem.

In addition, there is another very interesting point: in a group of people with no less than three people, if two people are selected, and there is only one person they know in common, then there will always be one person in the group. It is known to all.

As for Ramsey's theorem itself, according to the statement just now that we know or don't know, it can be expressed as:

For any positive integers k and l, if the number n of a party is large enough, no matter how the acquaintance relationship is, there must be k people who know each other, or l people who don't know each other.

If two positive integers k and l are given, the minimum n value that guarantees the aforementioned conclusion is called the Ramsey number R(k, l).

Of course, it is also possible to turn the relationship between people who know each other and not know each other into a coloring problem in graph theory, and then use the terms discussed to express Ramsey's theorem.

From Ramsey's theorem, a Ramsey theory can be derived, which is used to find the necessarily appearing substructures in a large and non-sequential structure.

Ge Liheng said that Ramsey theory is a branch of combinatorics.

It was also on the basis of this theory that he himself proposed the "Greenheng number", which was once regarded as the largest number that appeared in formal mathematical proofs, and was included in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1980.

Of course, the Ge Liheng number was surpassed by TREE (3) after that, thus losing the status of the largest number in the world.

Although Ge Liheng has an out-and-out Chinese name, Ge Liheng is not Chinese, but a native American.

As for his surname Graham, the literal translation should be Graham, but the reason why it was translated as Ge Liheng is because he later married a Chinese wife who was also a mathematician.

Ramsey, born in 1903, is only 23 years old this year.

In the original history, four years later, he would propose the Ramsey theorem named after him.

At that time, he was just a 27-year-old young man. It stands to reason that Ramsey will have a bright future in the mathematics field in the future.

But unfortunately, he also died young due to illness in the same year.

The cause of his death was not an accident or a sudden illness.

Instead, Ramsey has always had chronic liver disease. After an operation, he developed jaundice and died.

Now, in a talk with Chen Muwu, Ramsey has come up with the Chen-Ramsey theorem four years earlier than the original time and space, and maybe he can go further in the research on this issue.

Seeing that Chen Muwu agreed to his request, Ramsey was in a good mood.

After agreeing with Chen Muwu on the time and place to meet each week to discuss papers, he picked up the wine glass on the table and drank it down, then put the glass back and stood up.

Before leaving, Ramsey talked about another matter with Chen Muwu.

"Brother Chen, summer is coming soon, let's go swimming in the Kang River together by chance? I have long wanted to compete with you, the Olympic champion!
"By the way, I also asked someone to help me make a pair of the swimming trunks you invented. Although it is a bit revealing on the body, it is indeed much less resistant to swimming in the water than that one-piece swimsuit."

There is another unconfirmed theory about the cause of Ramsey's death.

It is said that he was an avid swimmer and died of an undiagnosed leptospirosis while swimming in the Cam River.

Although this statement was most likely a rumor, Chen Muwu still felt a little scared.

Although far away from the industrial area, the water quality of the Cam River looks clear, but there may still be many dirty things in it that cannot be seen.

He felt that if he wanted to swim again in the future, it would be better to go to that kind of special swimming pool, and he must stop making fun of his body.

"I'm sorry, Brother Ramsey, although I really want to swim with you, but my schedule is so full this summer that I may not be able to spare the time.

"And the water in the Cam River is not as clean as it looks. If you want to swim, you'd better go to a more professional swimming pool."

Ramsay said goodbye to Chen Muwu with a smile, but he ignored the latter's words.

His father swam in the Cam River when he was in school, and he himself has never had any problems since he was a child.

This Dr. Chen, he is really a bit rare.

After the meeting of the Apostles Club, when others went to church on Sunday, Chen Muwu also took a day off.

On Monday, after he finished his breakfast, he had just left the gate of Trinity College when he was stopped by someone just like the time when Oppenheimer came back from the United States.

This time it was Dirac who stopped him.

In the eyes of unfamiliar people, compared with the countryman from Bristol who first entered Cambridge two years ago, Dirac is even more shy now than before.

It is reasonable to suspect that although he learned a lot of knowledge at Cambridge University, but more than knowledge, he may have learned how to be autistic.

But the truth of the matter is that Dirac suffered a major blow in his life at the turn of spring and summer last year.

At that time, his older brother, who stayed with his parents, first disappeared in Bristol, and then a few days later, the police who came to the door told the old Dirac couple the bad news that the body of their eldest son was found, and basically Can be judged to be suicide.

Dirac's reticence was largely influenced by his native family.

His father had a typical patriarchal style, he would abuse his wife and scold his children at every turn, and the head of the family was majestic.

The care Dirac received from his parents basically came from his mother, and because the younger brother was smarter than the elder brother, Mrs. Dirac was very partial to the younger son.

However, Dirac's withdrawn personality and excessive maternal love were also a burden to him.

On the contrary, he felt a little envious of that enthusiastic and cheerful brother, who got closer to him.

His brother's suicide was a heavy blow to Dirac. After dealing with the funeral, he returned to Cambridge from Bristol in a daze every day. Finally, he found a way to unravel himself, that is to forget everything and put Dedicate yourself to learning.

It was at that time that Dirac's skills in mathematical physics advanced by leaps and bounds.

When Dirac was depressed, Chen Muwu happened to be doing his low-temperature physics experiment in London, so he was not able to accompany his good friend to comfort him.

Fortunately, there is another Kapitsa in Cambridge University.

The funniest Russian in Cambridgeshire, Kapitsa has also been through the pain of loss, so he knows how to comfort people.

It is precisely because of the existence of Kapitsa that Dirac will not sink deeper and deeper into grief.

"Paul, long time no see!"

"List."

"What's the matter with you today? Why come to me so early. "

"I visited you at the Cavendish Laboratory last week, but was told you weren't there.

"That's why I wanted to come to Trinity College to try my luck today, but I just happened to meet you."

"Sorry, Paul, I have something to do recently, so I haven't been to the laboratory."

Some time ago, Chen Muwu had been writing a thesis on the imperfection theorem at Trinity College.

After finishing writing, he ran to the particle accelerator under development every day, and it was true that he hadn't visited the Cavendish Laboratory for a long time.

"That's right, Chen, I'm going to graduate with a Ph.D. this summer. St. John's has already sent me an invitation to stay in the academy after graduation and be a researcher."

"This is a good thing, congratulations!"

"Thank you, and I want to congratulate you too, for publishing such a great math paper. Have you been doing research on mathematics before?"

"No, it was at the beginning of this year that I suddenly became interested in this matter."

"I really envy you, you can do good experiments, and you can come up with so many new theories, and it's not limited to physics, there are astronomy and mathematics. For me, it's just mathematics. It was very difficult. Take the graduation thesis as an example, it tortured me for almost a year."

"Then have you finished writing? It should be finished?"

Dirac nodded: "The thesis is finished, but Professor Fowler has arranged another matter for me.

"This autumn, or next year, he plans to give a course on Quantum Mechanics at Cambridge University, so I hope I can write a lecture note for this course.

"After receiving this task, I immediately thought of you. Are you busy recently? Do you want to study mathematics or physics? If not, can you write this book with me? After all, you are the quantum The founder of mechanics."

Okay, okay, I know that I have nothing to do recently, so I have come to see you, right?

Chen Muwu was not surprised that Fowler was going to give a lecture on quantum mechanics at Cambridge University.

In the original time and space, after the birth of the new quantum theory, Bohr in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Born in the University of Göttingen in Germany fought against each other.

Relying on the Cavendish Laboratory under the leadership of Rutherford, Cambridge University is still in the leading position in the world in experiments.

But on the theoretical side, Fowler was the only one left struggling.

Like Eddington, Fowler also studied mathematics at Trinity College.

But he often provided some theoretical support for Rutherford, and later he simply became the latter's son-in-law, so he also has a good understanding of cutting-edge physics.

It was he who snatched Dirac from Eddington, did not make him an astronomer, but led him on the road of theoretical physics research.

It's a pity that his good student didn't stay in Cambridge University to be his right-hand man after finishing his studies. Instead, he went to Göttingen and Copenhagen, two holy places of quantum mechanics, to visit and study, and finally joined the Copenhagen School.

When Chen Muwu taught linear algebra last year, he asked Oppenheimer to prepare lesson plans for himself.

This time, Fowler also asked Dirac to write lecture notes on quantum mechanics.

Unbeknownst to Dirac, his soon-to-be-written Quantum Mechanics was very famous.

However, Chen Muwu knew.

He didn't expect that he would be able to get a share of the profits this time after he had just plucked Ramsey's wool, so he agreed to Dirac's request without hesitation.

By the way, quantum mechanics.

He also remembered that a few months ago in Rutherford's office, he had promised Bohr that he would publish another paper on quantum mechanics after writing a paper on mathematics.

If Dirac hadn't reminded him today, Chen Muwu would definitely have forgotten about it.

For Zhao Zhongyao and Cockcroft, the progress of the particle accelerator is not going well.

After experiencing various blows, the two of them also became a little less confident from the beginning of their vows.

In Cockcroft's idea, Chen Muwu has already created the model of the generator, so it is only necessary to scale it up in equal proportions, and then consider various possible problems such as breakdown electric field and tip discharge, etc. By modifying the drawings, it is easy to create a real generator that meets the requirements, and use the high potential difference created by the generator to accelerate the particles.

The blueprints were drawn smoothly, but when the blueprints were converted into real objects, the two experienced various difficulties.

First, Chen Muwu pointed out the insulation problem of the experimental environment.

This incident caused them to stop all processes, and finally removed this potential safety hazard that could kill people with purchased asphalt and mica chips.

Then, there was a problem with the silk that carried the charge.

Chen Muwu's entire generator model is only the size of a tin can, so the ribbons he used in it are very short and narrow, which can be seen everywhere.

However, in the electric motor designed by Zhao Zhongyao, the spherical electrodes are more than two meters high from the ground, and it is a conveyor belt for transporting electric charges, which forms a loop back and forth, which means that at least five meters of silk are needed to Meet the requirements of this generator.

Cockcroft basically searched all the Chinatowns in England, but he couldn't find this kind of silk that met his requirements.

He also inquired with the shopkeeper how long it would take if an order was sent to China for customization.

The time given by the shopkeeper is not optimistic, and if it is shipped from China by ship or train, there are too many variables.

But I couldn't find a better way, so I had to order one from a Chinese silk merchant through the boss's channel.

In fact, Chen Muwu has a better solution to this problem.

But Cowcroft was not ashamed to tell Chen Muwu about this matter. He just said that some parts had problems, and the manufacturing process of the generator had to be slowed down, which might take several months to half a year.

At that time, Chen Muwu was concentrating on writing mathematics papers and didn't ask any specific questions. What he thought was that with Zhao Zhongyao and Cockcroft anyway, things must be right.

So he planned to use the spare time of these months to write a thesis with Ramsey and write a book with Dirac at the same time.

But before these two things, it is necessary to get out the quantum mechanics paper that has been promised to Bohr.

What he was thinking at the time was to ask Russell or Ramsey to help him to strictly prove that the calculation methods of matrix mechanics and wave mechanics are mathematically equivalent after finishing his mathematics paper.

But now that Dirac asked him to write a book together, it is also possible to ask Dirac for help.

After Einstein and Hilbert, another invisible competition started between Chen Muwu and von Neumann.

It's just that they don't know each other, and there is another opponent.

(End of this chapter)