golden scales

Liao Zhen was admitted to Jingshi University with the same academic ability in the 20th year of Chongzhen. After completing his university studies, there was no tutor to accept him as an apprentice, so he was assigned to the Artillery Factory in the 22nd year of Chongzhen.

From any aspect, Liao Zhen is not outstanding.Unlike those energetic young people, he was already 42 years old when he entered university—even though he and Liao Xing were of the same generation in the clan.Because he is old and has a calm personality, he can't be coquettish and cute in front of the professor like a young man begging to be taken in.

Liao Zhen was once the "idiot" in his family.

In the family of the Liao family, who started as a merchant, Liao Zhen's father worked as an accountant, and he also learned arithmetic from the accountant since he was a child.Thus began an interest in mathematics—to the point of indifference to anything else.

Such a person is destined to be eliminated in the original historical time and space, at best he will become a well-known accountant.However, in today's Ming Dynasty, mathematics is regarded as a basic subject by the crown prince, and all students in Jingshi University must study mathematics.This is also the benefit of the clan. People make the best use of it. Let such a "numerical idiot" go to the University of Economics and Economics to study, and the family will have another way.

But no one expected that during the two years at Jingshi University, Liao Zhen was basically in a state of self-study.Today's mathematics is still in the process of collating and summarizing the achievements of ancient mathematics, such as cutting circles, Tianyuan, and Dayan Qiuyi, which have already been handy for Liao Zhen.As for the Thai-Western mathematics translated by Xu Guangqi and others, in terms of depth, it is not deeper than that of Qin Jiushao, Liu Hui, Zu Chongzhi and others, and it can only be regarded as broadening their horizons.

What Liao Zhen loves most is the whole room of mathematics books in the library, which is also where he spends most of his time.

Surprisingly, he never participated in the "steam engine project" from the time he entered school to the time he left.

The steam engine project mobilized Jingshi University and Huangming Naval University.Hundreds of teachers and students, accounting for almost one-third of the total number, still did not choose him, a math nerd.Until he was assigned to the gun factory, a steam engine operation model was found in the warehouse of the gun factory-this was provided to the gun factory to let them study how to use the steam engine for the casting of cannons.

"This thing is cumbersome. It consumes a lot of energy and produces little effort. It's just child's play."

This is the opinion of many people in the gun factory on the steam engine, which is used to lift heavy objects at most.

Liao Zhen really got involved in steam engine manufacturing, but it was after Wang Yongshun came to the gun factory to seek technical support.

It is undeniable that the artillery factory is the place where the most cutting-edge craftsmen of Ming Dynasty are concentrated.Although they lack scientific research capabilities, their craftsmanship is well-deserved to be the crown of Ming Dynasty.

Liao Zhen's job is to help Wang Yongshun improve the boring machine.Make the "circle" dug out by the boring machine more "round" and more satisfy the design data.

After Zu Chongzhi used Liu Hui's circle-cutting technique to advance pi to the seventh decimal place, the mathematical significance of pi is far greater than its practical significance.Because no craftsman needs to be so precise when making tools.And Liao Zhen, a number idiot, planned to do this job to the extreme.

The weight and measure units of the Ming Dynasty are almost different from those of later generations. The degree refers to the length, and the commonly used ones are Zhang, Chi, and Cun.These three units are enough to meet the living needs of the average person.for longer units.There is also Shizhang as a reference, or directly use "li" as the unit.

Below the inch, there are five units of sudden, second, millimeter, centimeter, and minute.This is derived from the "Sun Tzu Suan Jing": "The silkworm spins silk as a flicker, ten flickers are one second, ten seconds are one centimeter, ten centimeters are one centimeter, and ten centimeters are one cent." In the Song Dynasty, "second" was changed to "Silk".Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, it was the ten abdication units of inch, fen, centimeter, centimeter, silk, and sudden.

The length of the building ruler in the Ming Dynasty is 32 centimeters in the metric system of later generations, and the inch is 3.2 centimeters, divided into 0.32 centimeters... By analogy, when the unit of millimeters is reached, it is enough to become a unit for measuring the wavelength of infrared rays, the size of cells, and the size of bacteria.These are of course useless at present.

Liao Zhen increased the accuracy of his work to [-] centimetres, which is almost crazy among the craftsmen of the current Ming Dynasty.

However, once the finished product is made, the effect is very significant.

The cylinders produced after improving the process easily reached the previous best level.

As a result, Liao Zhen was absorbed into the "Steam Engine Project", and Wang Zheng also personally wrote to the crown prince, hoping to transfer Liao Zhen from the artillery factory back to Jingshi University to teach.Because what he did was not to create a more accurate measuring tool.And he also invented differentiation by circumcision.

In the eyes of Wang Zheng and other Ming people, they just think this way of solving problems is very interesting, and it opens up an unknown land.However, Zhu Cihong is very aware of the influence of calculus and analytic geometry on world civilization.

Before Descartes established the system of analytic geometry, and before Breinitz and Newton invented calculus, Eastern and Western mathematics were basically on par, and Chinese mathematics was even better in some fields.However, after the invention of analytic geometry and calculus.Chinese mathematics still stays in the static world, while western mathematics has entered the dynamic field and started the journey of describing the world with mathematics.

Descartes was in Chongzhen for ten years, and published "Methodology for Correct Thinking and Discovering Scientific Truth" in [-] in the Christian calendar. Now there are nearly a thousand volumes of Chinese translations, and the name has been changed to "Methodology".His thoughts on analytic geometry can also be found in the library of Jingshi University.

Liao Zhen's attainments in this area are not outstanding, and perhaps the problems that have been solved are not considered problems in his opinion, so he is more concerned about the "infinitesimal" and "limit" problems.This is the fire of thought for the birth of calculus, and Huaxia has already accumulated enough firewood.

When the "fire" and "firewood" met, there was a relaxed environment, so a new subject appointed by the crown prince was born: "calculus".

With such achievements, improving the manufacturing process of the steam engine is simply "adding the head", and the name "Liao Zhen" will definitely be recorded in the annals of history because of calculus.

For such a mathematician, Zhu Cihong certainly did not hesitate to enshrine him with the highest reward.

In October of the 22nd year of Chongzhen, the Ministry of Rites awarded Liao Zhen a doctorate.Prior to this, Jingshi University had hired him as a professor, established a separate school of mathematics, and appointed him as the dean.On October [-]th, Emperor Chongzhen gave a banquet and an iron coupon, and made Liao Zhen the third-class uncle to avoid two deaths.

The official titles of Daming are only the third class of Duke and Marquis, and Zinan was never used after the founding of the country, until Zhu Cihong opened it up as a private title.The title Liao Zhen obtained this time is already a serious honor.

Wang Zheng didn't expect that Liao Zhen would be treated like this. Looking back at Liao Zhen's achievements carefully, he realized that he was really old and stupid, and had forgotten his original intention.At that time, he was able to go further and further on the road of Western learning, precisely because of his own mathematics skills.

"Hold on to the original aspiration, and it is more than enough to become a Buddha." Wang Zheng, a Catholic, even spit out a Zen proverb, rather desolately said: "I have traveled too far!"

Zhu Cihong originally wanted to control calculus to a certain extent, so as not to make wedding dresses for others and stimulate the geniuses of the Thai and Western countries.Although Newton and Breinitz are still young, scientific elites such as Huygens, Descartes, and Pascal should be able to understand the power of them.

And it has to be admitted that the academic environment in Europe is better than that of Ming Dynasty.

"Forget it, even if it spreads to Europe, it will be two or three years later, it's just a moment in this competition." Zhu Cihong said: "And why can't European talents be used by me?"

Human success stems from 90.00% hard work and 53% genius, and it is this [-]% genius that can create the spark of human civilization.Now [-], Descartes is just months away from his final day in Sweden as tutor to Queen Christina.

Like Song Yingxing, Christian Huygens, who thought of using black powder to make an internal combustion engine, was only 20 years old. He was studying law and mathematics at Orange College where his father was the principal, and he had already shown prodigy-like talent.

The 26-year-old Blaise Pascal was the first to publish the "Pascal's Law" by the crown prince Zhu Cihong a few years ago. Now he is overlooking Paris from the top of Clermont-Ferrand, repeatedly conducting experiments on atmospheric pressure.And it should be just three years ago that he and the "King of Amateur Mathematicians" Fermat completed the foundation work of modern probability theory.

Thinking of these names that were rarely heard after college, Zhu Cihong suddenly thought of Li Shimin's famous saying: "All the heroes of the world fall into my trap."

It seems that in addition to the Kui Xin Award, a bigger "dish" is needed to hold these stars in the history of science.

Therefore, on the eve of the winter solstice in the 22nd year of Chongzhen, the Daming Mathematics Award was established under the name of Liao Zhen's title "Hui Yuan". The first winner was naturally Hui Yuan Bo Liao Zhen.René Descartes, who was far away in northern Europe, won the award at the same time. He also won the award for his achievements in analytic geometry.

The emissary who sent the award was Prince Jing's son, because he volunteered to go to the far northern Europe with knowledge, and finally got the award of Xifeng.After the award was announced, the newly crowned king of Jing Zhu Hezhi was about to set off with a three-jin gold stele and 5000 taels of silver, hoping to arrive in Sweden before Descartes passed away.

"We can only pass the New Year's Eve on the road." Zhu Hezhi complained in a low voice, but he didn't dare to let anyone hear him.He had no idea that his title of prince was actually picked up.Because Descartes died in February [-] in the Christian calendar, no matter how he traveled, it was impossible to see Descartes alive.

If Zhu Cilang remembered this, the new prince might not even have the chance to complain.

In any case, the 30-member mission boarded the ship from Tianjin and sailed southwards driven by the sea breeze.Considering the wind direction and ocean currents, King Jing might still be able to catch up with King Tang's fleet.

Just when Zhu Cihong was happy for another great victory of Ming Dynasty in the scientific battle, Liao Zhen opened a company to build steam engines privately, and transformed them into crushed stones, and contracted the construction of [-] miles of official roads in Zhejiang Province. ...Finally, it was submitted to the Crown Prince's desk by Dongchang.

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