Short video spoiler history: The beginning of modern warfare

Chapter 134 Life During the Great Depression
Late Han Dynasty, Nanjun.

Zhang Fei stared at the sky. He had no feelings for this group of people, so he didn't care about the life or death of these two people.

However, from several videos I watched later, I learned that the two astronauts trapped in the spacecraft were both in their sixties and this time there was not only a nitrogen leak, but also other problems. In the end, they could only dock with the space station manually.

Just looking at the time it takes to do the docking, you know this job is not an easy one. No wonder the comments section joked that the two of them might have offended NASA and were being used as a scapegoat.

"It seems like the angle is adjusted by propellant?" It only flashed on the screen, and it was not very clear, but everyone explained it this way based on their understanding of the space environment and Newton's third law.

"It's just fart!" Zhang Fei replied in a muffled voice.

"."

"I wonder what it feels like to float?" Zhang Fei continued to talk to himself, not caring at all about the dull atmosphere.

From the picture, we can see that the female astronaut was floating into the space station. From the excited expression on her face, we can tell that she was grateful for surviving the disaster at that moment. She must have confessed to God several times during those few hours she was stranded in space.

This kind of strange scene and magical experience has been experienced by few people even in later generations, let alone now, when we can only rely on our imagination.

"Is it like floating on water?"

"Not quite the same. When you float on the water, at least you know that the water around you is real, but floating in space like that is like a magic." Everyone rushed to express their opinions, and each person focused on different aspects.

The scene switches again, showing one person chatting with multiple characters, differentiated by the color of their clothes.

[Xiao Huang: There is an article saying that during the Great Depression in the United States 100 years ago, almost no one was starving. I don’t believe it.]

[Xiaobai: The cause of the Great Depression was overproduction, which also included agriculture. In the early 20th century, the United States launched an agricultural revolution, and the production method was mechanized. Since then, the unit output has skyrocketed. In addition, the land in their great plains is extremely fertile, and industrial synthetic ammonia, which is nitrogen fertilizer, has been realized at that time.]

[Xiaobai: The main function of nitrogen fertilizer is to promote food production. With the combination of these three factors, food production has skyrocketed as if a cheat code has been turned on. It is normal that people are not starving to death.]

[Xiao Huang: The agricultural population has dropped sharply, so many farmers will be unemployed.]

[Xiaobai: A large number of farmers flocked to cities and engaged in industry and the service industry. This coincided with the Second Industrial Revolution, and the United States produced a surplus of industrial products, which led to the Great Depression.]

[Xiaobai: But the depression caused by overproduction in industrial society and the famine caused by underproduction in agricultural society are completely different things. In 1933, the worst year of the Great Depression, the price of New York beef was 6.4 cents a pound, and the average monthly salary of workers was $76. You can calculate the purchasing power of their income.]

[Xiao Huang: Oh, one month’s salary could buy more than 1000 pounds of beef (1 pound ≈ 9 taels), but their unemployment rate at the time was in the s or s, and many people had no income at all. Even if the price was cheap, they still couldn’t afford it, right?]

[Xiaobai: Unemployed families can receive relief. In 1933, poor families in the United States could receive $16 in relief each month. Although this money cannot guarantee a good life, it can definitely fill their stomachs.]

Jinling City.

Overproduction, literally speaking, means that the goods produced are more than the food can be eaten?

Everyone looked at each other with complicated expressions. Even if they had thousands of acres of fertile land, they would not dare to say that they could not eat or sell the grain grown in their fields.

"How exaggerated is this production? Can't we sell the leftovers to other countries? It's impossible that other countries also have overcapacity, right?"

"It's impossible to think about it. Other countries and regions may be in turbulent times. The First and Second World Wars were probably during this period."

Everyone understood it after hearing it. Just like later generations, it was an era of war and fighting, and ordinary people even dug up tree bark and grass roots to eat. If we expect the people in war-torn areas to consume the excess goods, we may not even be able to earn back the travel expenses.

This is not discrimination, but a bloody reality. In any country or region that has been in war for decades, the valuable things in the hands of ordinary people would have been sold cheaply or pawned.

"Last year, I learned from Tianmu Middle School the traditional method of making ammonia fertilizer. It's good, but it cannot be mass-produced and the cost is a bit high. Now that industrial synthetic ammonia fertilizer is specifically mentioned, it is obvious that ammonia fertilizer can be produced on a large scale at low cost. This is very important." Zhu Yuanzhang said.

Everyone nodded. Tianmu's traditional method of making various fertilizers was only a stopgap measure. Now there was finally some progress in artificially synthesized ammonia fertilizer.

"Ammonia fertilizer, also called nitrogen fertilizer, maybe this fertilizer contains nitrogen."

"That makes sense. How could you have forgotten the periodic table? Isn't nitrogen also filled in light bulbs?"

After being reminded by everyone in the Science Department, Zhu Yuanzhang and others also remembered some things. They could see that chemistry and other subjects were not clearly distinguished from each other. It was like air, omnipresent and without much presence, yet somewhat elusive.

"After learning the three laws of mechanics, universal gravitation and electromagnetism, we will have mastered more than 8% of classical mechanics, but we still know nothing about the basics of chemistry." Zhu Yuanzhang sighed. Limited by direction and tools, the court's research on chemistry is still at the entry stage.

For example, we know the periodic table, but we only have a certain understanding of a few elements.

Now, in order to produce ammonia fertilizer industrially, we must conduct in-depth research in chemistry, which is also the only way to become an industrial country.

Without a chemical industry foundation, the so-called industrial power is nothing but a castle in the air.

For example, the United States during this Great Depression relied entirely on its foundation as an industrial power. During this most serious period, as long as there was work to do, the average salary could almost buy 1000 kilograms of beef. Converted into rice and flour, it was more than enough to support a family of five.

Besides, generally speaking, couples and parents-in-law can go out to find work, which means that as long as they are not laid off, their lives will be much better than that of most people today.

Although the income of the people affected by the Great Depression is only about 2% of that of the former, they probably will not starve to death.

This is the confidence.

Everyone in the science department looked a little ashamed. They were doing their best to help their boss, but they were really confused about the chemistry subject and didn't know which direction to focus their efforts on. [Xiao Huang: Oh, do I still get food on weekdays? Haha]

[Xiaobai: During the Great Depression in the United States, there were many relief stations that distributed various foods for free. The most classic one is still often made online by people to recall the bitter past and sweet past.]

[Xiao Huang: I guess it’s all grass roots and tree bark.]

[Xiaobai: This food is made of lard, bacon, potatoes, flour, pepper and salt. Although it doesn't taste very good, it is definitely enough to fill your stomach.

[Xiao Huang: This is called a relief meal. Even in San Ge’s current home, it may not be possible to guarantee that everyone can eat.]

[Xiaobai: This shows that the floor of industrial society is much higher than the ceiling of agricultural society. The productivity of the two societies is completely not on the same order of magnitude. Industrial countries only need to have a certain amount of land resources to easily produce a variety of agricultural products.]

[Xiao Bai: At that time, Country M was the world's leading industrial power, and it made a fortune quietly in Season 1. It had a rich family background, and a lean camel is bigger than a horse.]

【Xiao Huang: That’s right, producing food is much easier than making cars.】

Tang Dynasty, Chang'an City.

The emperor and his ministers were discussing the matter heatedly. You told me that this is the United States during the Great Depression a hundred years ago?
Is the living standard of its disaster-stricken people better than that of the poor people in a mysterious big country in South Asia today?

"Sure enough, the biggest difference between people is their reincarnation skills."

"The ceiling of industrial society is indeed very high." Li Shimin and others also reluctantly accepted this fact. This is completely not on the same level. In their eyes, the Great Depression was not enough to starve people to death.
"I remember three months ago when I mentioned that the popular trend during that period seemed to be losing weight?"

"It is true. Tianmu has listed the weight loss measures from the 1930s to the 1960s."

"It turns out that a country's economic situation and people's living conditions can be reflected in its customs and fashions." Fang Xuanling stroked his beard and said, this is a novel discovery.

Many people recalled those ineffective weight loss devices. Compared with other countries that were mired in war, even during the Great Depression, it was much better than other countries.

Li Shimin fell into deep thought again, wondering what an industrially powerful country is and how to join the ranks of industrial countries.

[Chang'e 6 has been very popular recently, and the question of why the moon always has only one side facing the earth has become popular again. 】

[This is actually an astronomical phenomenon called tidal locking. To achieve this effect, the moon's rotation speed and its revolution speed must be exactly the same. This seems to be an amazing and almost impossible coincidence.]

[When the Earth and the Moon are closest, they are about 36.3 kilometers apart (from the center of the Earth to the center of the Moon), while the distance between their two closest ends (surface) is 35.5 kilometers, and the distance between their two farthest ends is 37.1 kilometers, a difference of more than 4%]

[This means that the gravitational pull of the Earth is not the same on both sides of the Moon, and the side closer to the Earth is more affected by gravity]

[While being affected by gravity, the moon revolves around the earth, and there is also a virtual centrifugal force in the opposite direction to gravity. Without considering other celestial bodies, the two together are the combined force on the moon.]

[On the side of the moon close to the earth, gravity is strong and centrifugal force is weak, and the direction of the resultant force is toward the earth; on the side far from the earth, the centrifugal force is strong, gravity is weak, and the direction of the resultant force is away from the earth. Under the pull of these two forces, the moon is pulled into an ellipsoid. This force is called tidal force.]

[On Earth, tidal forces cause the sea water to rise and fall. On the moon, there is no sea. Outside it is a circle of bare solid crust. Once the crust is stretched into an ellipse, it cannot recover as quickly as the sea water and can only maintain its deformed appearance.]

[Next is the rotation. A long, long time ago, the moon rotated very fast, but when it rotated, one end was always subject to tidal force inwards, and the other end was subject to tidal force outwards. These tidal force are opposite to the direction of the moon's rotation, so the moon's rotation speed will gradually slow down, and finally the moon's rotation speed will be equal to its revolution speed.]

[This final state of force balance is called tidal locking. Tidal locking is a very common astronomical phenomenon in the universe. As long as two planets are close enough, tidal locking may occur. The Earth and the Sun will eventually become tidal locked.]

From ancient times to the present, people's understanding of the moon has been constantly deepening. For example, the description of the moon's phases "new moon, full moon, and crescent moon" and the explanation of the tidal phenomenon caused by the moon: "The tide is in response to the moon, so when the moon is full, the tide is high."

It has been discovered that the moon always faces only one side towards the earth, but no reasonable explanation has been put forward.

In front of the Fengtian Hall, everyone copied the picture of the sky curtain demonstration, which also included the so-called force analysis, and only used force analysis and Newton's three laws.

It can be seen that the explanation mentioned by Tianmu always has a feeling of "the great way is simple". Between celestial bodies, there is only mutual gravity and centripetal force at work.

"This explanation is logical, and it also explains the reasons for the changes in the earth's tides, which is consistent with what is said in ancient books." Liu Ji said with a smile. It can be seen that our ancients were not all mediocre, but they were limited by the development of physics and failed to demonstrate the scientific literacy they should have.

Not counting His Highness, there are many talented physicists in the Science Department.

Everyone is quite convinced about this point, especially since there are no other comments in the comment section.

"The topic of the moon has always been very popular." Hu Weiyong added casually.

"On the one hand, the back of the moon was used to collect lunar soil, and satellites from other countries were also brought along. In addition, there were doubts about NASA's manned lunar landing, and there were also accidents with manned spacecraft and accidents with astronauts who had previously landed on the moon."

After counting all these, several people looked at each other and wanted to laugh.

It's like adding fuel to the fire. There's no way the heat can ever subside. I heard that the discussion outside is even more heated.

"Talk about the back side of the moon, don't talk about the dark side of the moon!"

“Isn’t this more mysterious?”

《Cold Fact: The back of the moon is sometimes illuminated by the sun!》

(End of this chapter)