1840Indian rebirth

181 [Age of the Sun]

"Sometimes it's really fast." Ma Shao thought for a moment.

"It's unbelievable. In such a short time, you wrote an almost perfect paper." Thomson read it carefully and couldn't help but sigh again.

"Thank you for putting my name first. Frankly, after reading your paper, it makes me a little ashamed..."

After a pause, he hesitated and said: "I feel that even without the discussion just now, you can establish a complete thermodynamic temperature scale on your own."

Ma Shao: "Professor Thomson, you have inspired me, not just now, but your research results in the past few years have also deeply inspired me, just like Joule, Carnot, and Rumford."

"In comparison, writing this paper is more like hard work. Achievements in the world come from 99% sweat and 1% inspiration, but 1% inspiration is often more important.

."

Thomson's expression moved slightly, as if he had thought about these words, and then smiled: "Ninety-nine percent sweat and one percent inspiration... I like this sentence!"

"Today's work is over. Mr. Mashao, come and sit at my house. I think we still have a lot to talk about the new thermodynamics."

Ma Shao: "Very happy."

The two left Glasgow University and immediately went to Thomson's house.

Mashao met Thomson's parents, his father to be precise. Thomson's mother had died more than ten years ago.

Old Thomson is an old mathematics professor with profound knowledge and kind personality.

Obviously, Thomson can grow into a genius that attracts much attention. On the one hand, he is gifted, and on the other hand, his father has taught him well.

From the perspective of Mashao, an education practitioner, the latter is more important.

Professional education can even allow gorillas to learn sign language and communicate with humans, not to mention turning ordinary people into geniuses.

Of course the reverse is also true - stupid education can turn geniuses into ordinary people, and even make people into gorillas.

Regarding the arrival of the horse whistle, Thomson's father was naturally surprised at first and concealed a hint of disgust.

However, due to the common language of mathematics and physics, Thomson Sr., like his son, soon had a happy conversation with Ma Shao, leaving behind those second-hand prejudices gained from public opinion.

Ma Shao had a lot of conversations with the father and son, both on serious mathematics and physics issues and on some not-so-serious ones.

"What do you think the age of the sun is?" Thomson asked this whimsical-sounding question at the dinner table.

"Maybe only God knows." Old Thomson said casually while eating a piece of bread.

Thomson added: "After reading the paper by Joule and Ma Shao, I have been thinking about this issue recently. I think that the energy burned by the sun may be converted from the potential energy of gravity."

Old Thomson: "Why not chemical combustion?"

Thomson blurted out: "It can't be chemical combustion. If the sun burned coal, it would burn out in a few thousand years at most."

"The gravitational potential energy at the solar scale is indeed much larger than chemical energy." Ma Shao said.

Thomson's eyes lit up: "Do you also think that the sun's energy comes from potential energy?"

The horse whistle was silent for two seconds.

Of course the sun's energy comes from nuclear energy, but at this time people knew nothing about nuclear energy.

The largest source of energy that scientists can think of is the gravitational pull of the sun, which is indeed huge, at least much stronger than burning coal - many people really think that the sun burns coal.

But compared with nuclear power, this is still a seriously underestimated estimate.

"I think the sun has other ways of obtaining energy," Mashao said.

"In what way?"

Ma Shao shook his head: "I don't know, it's just an intuition. I have estimated that the gravitational potential energy of the sun is converted into heat energy, which can last for tens of millions of years, but I feel that this time is a bit short, so I doubt that there is anything in the sun that we don't know about.

Know how to get energy."

"Is tens of millions of years still short?" Old Thomson said with a smile, "Many people think that the sun is only 6,000 years old, especially those in the church."

Ma Shao: "I read some articles about geology. Some geologists estimate that the age of the earth may reach hundreds of millions of years. The sun should be older than the earth, at least hundreds of millions of years, or even billions of years."

"Of course, this is more of just my wishful thinking." He changed the topic, "Science is all about evidence. How many conclusions are there based on the evidence."

After a pause, Ma Shao added: "Therefore, William, I agree with your theory. This is a reasonable explanation - the energy of the sun comes from gravitational potential energy."

Old Thomson: "Yes, evidence is the most important thing."

Thomson thought for a while: "Mashao, do you still have your calculations for estimating the age of the sun?"

Ma Shao: "No more. I just made a few random calculations on the scrap paper. Maybe I made a mistake."

He didn't even think about it.

He just had some understanding of this period of scientific history, which was how scientists first estimated the age of the sun.

If he remembered correctly, Kelvin also played an important role in this history.

Now it seems that this is indeed the case, and Thomson has shown a strong interest in this issue.

"I think we should take a serious look at this issue and speculate on the process by which the sun obtains energy and its most likely age," Thomson said.

Ma Shao nodded: "Although I don't think this can lead to the truth. But it is undeniable that this is an interesting question."

So for a period of time, estimating the age of the sun became his and Thomson's main job.

They have proposed several models, and the calculated age of the sun has changed from the first 20 million years to the last 500 million years.

The reason for such a span is mainly because Ma Shao repeatedly emphasized that "the sun should be older." After Thomson proposed the model, he revised it many times and added assumptions to extend the life of the sun in the theory.

Despite this, after 500 million years, the two could no longer continue.

"It can't be any older." Thomson held the manuscript and said with a frown, "We have fully considered gravity and the energy of meteorites, and 500 million years is the limit. This should be the maximum age of the sun."

Ma Shao nodded: "Okay, but I still think the sun should be older..."

"..."

After a while, he said: "Let's publish several models and results."

"Okay." Thomson nodded.

The two compiled the assumptions and calculation process into a paper, and Mashao once again put Thomson's name in front of his own.

Looking at the two names in the author column, Thomson was silent for a while.

Ma Shao: "What?"

Thomson said slowly: "For a long time, I actually didn't really agree that humility is a virtue...until I met someone who was truly humble."

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