Fox of France

Joseph showed an excited expression and greeted them one by one. However, when facing Laplace, he couldn't help but clenched his fist quietly, and beat him up in his heart - this is also the problem that later generations of science and engineering students face on the test papers, Looking out of the window helplessly, but just in time to see a shooting star flying by there, it is generally a wish that will be made hastily.

Back then, Joseph had no chance to beat up Laplace, but now this damn guy actually stood in front of him, but Joseph still couldn't beat him up, so he could only greet him with great enthusiasm: "Mr. Laplace, I I have read some of your works, and those things have given me a lot of inspiration. I am so lucky to meet you!" As he said, he stretched out both hands and held his hand, like *** As if holding Macron's hand, the president first squeezed it hard, and then pulled the opponent's hand towards him, causing Laplace to stagger and almost fell.

"Mr. Laplace, it's a great honor to meet you. I have many questions to ask you, such as..." Joseph said with a smile on his back teeth while using With all his strength, he squeezed Laplace's hand hard with both hands.

"Ah...Mr. Bonaparte...Mr. Bonaparte...you really...sit down first, then...slowly...talk slowly..." Laplace shrugged his right shoulder Standing up, he tried to pull his hand back while speaking intermittently.

"Ah, Monsieur Bonaparte, let's sit down and talk. You are so enthusiastic that you may have hurt Pierre's hand." Seeing Joseph's enthusiasm and Laplace holding his hand, His face was deformed by the pain, and Lavoisier wanted to laugh, but he still called Joseph.

"Ah?" Joseph acted astonished, and quickly let go of Laplace's hand like an electric shock, and kept apologizing: "Mr. Laplace, I'm really sorry, I'm really sorry to see you. It's so exciting... This is really... You are not injured..."

Laplace moved his right hand a bit, and then said: "Mr. Bonaparte, how come you have such great strength."

"Pain and hatred have given me strength." Joseph thought so, but said: "I often help Father Jacques do carpentry, so the strength in my hands may be a little stronger."

"That's not a little too big," said Laplace, "but we're not going to talk about it now—you know, we've seen that paper of yours, and M. Lavoisier and M. Condorcet's comment on it. I appreciate the article, but you know that your paper is trying to overthrow a theory that is generally supported and supported by many experimental phenomena. This is a big deal, and everyone thinks it is better to be cautious, so Mr. Monsieur Condorcet, and some other gentlemen, would like to speak to you personally about this thesis..."

"To be honest," Condorcet said with a gentle smile at Joseph, "Monsieur Bonaparte, your paper is a rare high-level paper in these years, nothing else, just the paper Those few mathematical tools in , are enough to win you the game. However, some people don't agree with your conclusion. Well, at least Cullen and Monge don't like your conclusion very much. They are coming On the way, maybe they will ask you a lot of questions. You have to be mentally prepared."

"Mr. Condorcet, you can just call me Joseph." Joseph said, "I have considered this issue before writing this article. To be honest, when I came to this conclusion, I was also worried I made a mistake. And I wrote this paper precisely to be able to discuss this issue with other people.”

"Haha, the young people nowadays are really good." Lavoisier said, "Joseph, you mean you are ready? Well, you don't have to be nervous, actually..."

Just halfway through the conversation, I heard the sound of the door of the small living room being pushed open.

Seeing a few more people coming in, Joseph stood up quickly.

The others also stood up. It was His Royal Highness Duke Louis-Philippe Joseph of Orleans, who Joseph had met once in the café, who led the way in. Behind him were two men in military uniform. One was older and seemed to be in his fifties; the other was a little shorter, with a bronze face, a pair of bushy eyebrows, and a pair of piercing eyes.

"Your Highness, why are you here?" Condorcet said.

"Ah, Monsieur Condorcet, I passed by here today. I was here to visit Monge. After listening to him talk about the things here, I found that the Monsieur Bonaparte who caused the controversy seemed to be a follower I knew. My little friend named Joseph came over to have a look. It turned out... Joseph, it's really you." Duke Charles said as he walked over, stretched out his hand, and held Joseph's hand. Laplace stared at their hands with wide eyes, but...

"Ah, Joseph, the last time I met you, I thought we would have another playwright in France, but unexpectedly, there was a mathematician. However, Mr. Monge seems to disagree with some of your views I want to discuss it with you. Of course, I don’t understand these things at all. I just came to see the fun.” The Duke of Orleans let go of Joseph’s hand and said: “By the way, Joseph, I’m here to introduce you to my Two friends."

He pointed to the older one and said: "This is Mr. Cullen, he is an authority on electricity." Then he pointed to the shorter and younger one and introduced: "This is Mr. Monge, he is authority on geometry."

Joseph hurried forward to say hello to Cullen and Monge. Duke Charles himself found a chair and sat down and said, "You know, I don't know much about science, but I am very interested. Monge, you have a lot of questions to ask Joseph, you can start now .”

Monge was a straightforward person. After hearing this, he immediately said: "Mr. Bonaparte, in your paper, you determined that light is a kind of transverse wave, and the mathematical derivation is impressive, but you should know, Both waves and waves propagate in a medium, if light is really a wave, what characteristics should this medium, this light ether, have, have you thought about it?"

Joseph was well prepared for this problem, because in the historical development of later generations, all kinds of doubts about the "light ether" are the main weapons used by the supporters of particle theory to oppose the wave theory.

"This is how I think about this question..." Joseph said.

Joseph knew that the so-called "light ether" was abandoned by scientists in later generations. But at this time, he can't directly say that the ether does not exist, because it needs a lot of scientific discoveries and scientific experiments as the pre-foundation. So he can only use some conjectures of those supporters of the volatility theory to deal with Monge's problem.

"About the hardness of the ether, it also involves the speed of light. I imagined an experiment that can be used to measure the speed of light more accurately. Considering that the earth is constantly moving, it should also be constantly moving relative to the ether. , then the speed of light measured from different directions may be different..."

"A more accurate way to measure the speed of light?" Condorcet became interested.

"We use an eight-sided mirror that can rotate..." Joseph said. The method he said is the Michelson rotating prism method. It is a relatively simple method with good measurement accuracy.

While introducing the experimental idea, Joseph took a piece of paper and a pen, and began to draw the design of the equipment needed for the experiment.

Joseph habitually described those devices in the way of drawing three-sided projection diagrams that are common in later generations. But when he saw the pictures he drew, Monge suddenly opened his eyes wide.

"Mr. Bonaparte, where did you learn this way of drawing?" Monge asked.

"Ah?" Joseph was taken aback. He originally thought that this kind of drawing method should be a very common technique, but when he heard Monge's question and saw the serious expression on Monge's face, he immediately realized To, perhaps, in this day and age, such cartography did not appear at all.

"I drew this randomly by myself. I think it is more intuitive and easy to understand. Why, is there a problem here?" Joseph said.

Monge thought for a while and replied: "Mr. Bonaparte, you may, no, you definitely don't know. I started using a similar drawing method almost twenty years ago. But because this drawing method is used in the military Significant in terms of meaning - I think, in your intelligence, it is not difficult to understand, so this kind of drawing is kept strictly secret. It can only be taught in military academies, and all officers who have learned it must I swear, don’t spread this technique to outsiders. I said to the above that maybe it won’t be long before someone else independently researches a similar technique, just like Newton and Leibniz invented calculus Same. However, since your drawing method is so similar to the secret drawing method, I am afraid that this achievement of yours also needs to be kept secret. Mr. Bonaparte, you have not taught this drawing method to others, have you?"

"I only taught this technique to my brother Napoleon, who is now in his first year at the Military Academy in Paris. Well, he's also good at math."

"First grade, descriptive geometry is not yet available in the first grade." Monge said, "Mr. Bonaparte, you have to remind him that this kind of skill cannot be passed on."

"Is there such a thing?" Duke Charles became interested, "Monge, science should belong to all mankind. It's not good to keep it secret."

"Duke, this is not what I mean. This is the decision of the Kingdom government. I can only obey." Monge replied. He turned to Joseph again and said, "Mr. Bonaparte, this discovery should have brought you honor and status, but now, you have to hide it. For France, this is a necessary sacrifice. I hope you can understand. "

Joseph nodded and said, "I understand that although science has no borders, scientists have nationalities."

"Just like Leibniz's calculus and Newton's calculus, there are still many differences. Mr. Bonaparte, I think there should be some differences between your painting method and Monge's painting method." Cullen said suddenly, "Can you tell us about your painting method?"