Zou Rong had a bad temper: "Let's just say it! Revolution is necessary, otherwise there will be no future." Cai Yuanpei held him down and said, "I have told you many times, don't be so impulsive. Things must be done step by step. You are too young. If you are anxious, It is easy to suffer big losses and be used as cannon fodder by others." Fortunately, Cai Yuanpei can control him.
Lin Baishui also said helplessly: "I really don't know how it will develop in the future." Cai Yuanpei is also middle-aged and has already made a certain judgment on the situation: "I am afraid that the Qing court will not be able to dominate the country for a long time, even their hometown in the Northeast will be destroyed." We ordinary Han people have to worry about it. But even if the Qing Dynasty dies, it will not be enough to make us strong. As Mr. Li Yu said, politics, law and science must be connected." Li Yu said with a smile: "Principal It makes perfect sense. Pure revolution is only destructive. How to break and rebuild is the most difficult and most important thing." Lin Baishui wrote down the conversation between the two: "I think the next issue I have another idea about the content." Cai Yuanpei said to Li Yu again: "Shucai, I still have some questions to ask you. Although Jing'an has mentioned in the article, there are some very successful scientific achievements in the history of our country. Just like Zu Chongzhi's calculation of pi written in the article. I am very curious, how is such a subtle and exquisite thing calculated?" Li Yu said: "I didn't expect that the principal was also interested in mathematics." Cai Yuanpei said: "Western learning, The most basic thing is mathematics, and I heard that pi is a common sense content, so I feel a bit ashamed to ask this question."
"There is nothing to be ashamed of," Li Yu said,
"Actually, the inscription method used by Zu Chongzhi is relatively complicated in calculation, but there are actually many interesting and simple algorithms for pi." Cai Yuanpei said, "I would like to hear the details." Li Yu found a piece of paper and a Take a ruler and a needle, then draw a few parallel lines on the paper, and say: "Throw this needle randomly on this paper, remember the total number of needle drops, and the number of times the needle intersects with the parallel lines. Divide the two and the result is the value of pi.
"If you drop the needle enough times, it will be very close to pi. If you want to achieve what Zu Chongzhi achieved in half a lifetime, it may only take a few days." Everyone was stunned: "Can this be like this?!" Li Yu said with a smile: "If you don't believe it, try it. Try." What Li Yu is talking about is the famous Buffon needle problem, which uses the classic probability theory model to calculate pi.
However, although it has been more than a hundred years since Buffon proposed this experimental method, until now, many people even in the mathematical community still find it difficult to accept it.
Because in the eyes of most mathematicians, the calculation of pi is a very rigorous matter, and finding it through experiments is really jaw-dropping.
Lin Baishui was actually very interested and took the initiative to start experiments. For him, mathematics is a book of difficulty, but who can't throw a pin or count?
In fact, in later generations, for many people, even for top students in non-mathematics majors in science and engineering, slightly more advanced mathematics is still a bible. After all, it is a subject that depends entirely on talent.
Not long after, he and several students threw it five thousand times in coordination. Also very patient. Li Yuben said that throwing it 2,000 times would be enough, and he could almost get 3.14, but Lin Baishui insisted.
"Beyond" the famous Zu Chongzhi. But after 5,000 times, the result is still around 3.1418. The fourth place is far off, that is, it is only accurate to the third place.
Lin Baishui was a little disappointed: "Isn't it enough?" Li Yu said with a smile: "If you want to be accurate, the data must be increased many times. If you throw it all day long, twenty or thirty thousand times, maybe you will get A more accurate number." Cai Yuanpei was very surprised when he saw the data was 3.14: "Why is this happening?" Li Yu had to give him a general explanation of the probability model, but the trigonometric function sin was still used in it anyway. Even though it was only about the content of first-year high school mathematics, Cai Yuanpei still couldn't understand it.
Cai Yuanpei sighed: "From this little thing, I finally understood what science is. Although I can't know its principles, from Brother Shucai's explanation, I can also feel that mathematics is ingenious and can use such ingenious ideas to solve practical problems. Li Yu said: "Mathematical models can handle a lot of problems, so they are the queen of science." Cai Yuanpei said: "I think science must be a hen-control system." Li Yu said with a smile: "Your statement is very consistent with mathematics." relationship with science.”
"Really?" Cai Yuanpei said,
"I just said it casually." Li Yu said, "That's it. What limits the upper limit of science is often mathematics." Cai Yuanpei thought thoughtfully: "In this way, the new school's emphasis on mathematics is on the right track." Lin Baishui Not willing to give in, I actually threw the needle nearly 20,000 times that day. Although the result was only about 3., the error in the last position was quite large.
But it's still
"Small success" means being able to achieve results to four decimal places. Lin Baishui enthusiastically voted for the newspaper the next day.
Of course, the explanation of the theory still needs to be handled by Li Yu. This kind of simple model in life that contains mathematical principles is more popular. Through Li Yu's fame, readers can get to know Zu Chongzhi again.
Therefore, many historians have been busy for a while with the research on the lives of ancient Chinese scientists such as Zu Chongzhi.
Everyone has regained a little confidence through him: Yes, we were able to lead Europe in the past, why can't we do it now?
Seeing how interested everyone was, Cai Yuanpei once again recommended Li Yu to write an article about why China was lagging behind in science and how to break the situation.
Since it was the future principal himself who requested the manuscript, Li Yu certainly could not refuse. And this issue is very worthy of discussion for China's current situation.
Although Li Yu is not good at writing, he can still tell stories to some extent and knows how to cut into the story. He wrote: "I think everyone has heard of a worrying story. It comes from the Taoist classic "Lieh Zi" during the Warring States Period. A fable. You must also know that this fable mocks the kind of mediocre people who worry about themselves and others all day long with unnecessary worries and endless sorrows. But I want to say that the real The mediocre people are actually all the people who laugh at Qi people! Let’s review this story first: There was a man in Qi State. He was worried that the sky would collapse and the earth would sink. He had no safe place to live. He was so worried that he couldn’t sleep or eat. . Someone went to comfort him and said: "The sky is just accumulated gas. There is no air anywhere. Every move you make, every breath you take, you are active in the sky all day long. Why are you worried that the sky will collapse?" What?" Qi Ren said: "The sky is really made of accumulated gas, so won't the sun, moon and stars fall down?" The person who comforted him said: "The sun, moon and stars are also made of accumulated gas, and they are just luminous things in the gas. , even if it falls, it will not hurt anyone." Qi Ren asked again: "What if the ground collapses?" The person who comforted him said: "The ground is just piled up clods of soil, filling up all sides. In the void, there is no place without clods of soil. You are walking and jumping and moving on the ground all day long, why are you worried about sinking?" Liezi, which contains this fable, is a classic written more than 2,000 years ago. , after so many years, how many ancient Chinese sages have not seriously thought about why the sky can't fall? Why can't the earth collapse? In fact, I think Qi Ren is a person who loves to think, and he thinks about scientific issues. : Atmospheric science issues, earth science issues, mechanics issues, astronomy issues, etc. If our wise men study carefully, modern science can even be studied from here, and then there may be no rise of modern science in Europe. Therefore, Qi Ren is not It’s not mediocre, but it’s us in the past who are mediocre. This is an evocative story for more than two thousand years, and it is also why we have gradually led the Western powers from science to the current situation where we are beaten everywhere. We are complacent and think we have the truth , in fact, we are just deceiving ourselves. Our ancestors did not ask these questions thoroughly. Since it has not collapsed, there is no need to worry and delve into it. What is even more sad is that this word has been positioned as a negative idiom and has been taught to the world for thousands of years. ! Used to ridicule those who worry about things that they don’t have to worry about, and to persuade people that there is no need to worry too much about unknown things or to look for trouble. This is the power of culture, this is the traditional gene, this is ancient China The epitome of the development of science. When Western sages encounter problems, they look deeply for the reasons; when our sages encounter problems, they only focus on whether it is useful. What is science? Science is about asking the root cause, rather than focusing on whether it is useful. I will give you some more To clarify, science is science and technology is technology. The two are completely different. Science lies in discovering the unknown and creating new knowledge. To answer
"what" and
"Why". And technology lies in the application of unknown and existing knowledge. To answer
"what to do" and
"How to do it". It can be said that if there is science, there must be technology, but if there is technology, there may not be science. Scientific discovery is the theoretical basis of technological invention; science proposes the possibility of development, and technological changes
"may" be
"Reality". However, technological inventions do not necessarily need to be supported by scientific theories and can also rely on experience.
We have led the world for almost most of our history, but unfortunately, this lead has been limited to technology.
In other words, our ancient times only had technology and no science. Or to be more precise, we had science in ancient times, but it was very rudimentary and weak.
Even the four most famous inventions in our ancient times: papermaking, compass, gunpowder and printing, are strictly speaking technological inventions, not scientific discoveries.
Because we focus on practicality, we can see that these four great inventions are of great practical value.
However, this is not the case with Western scientific spirit. If you can study ancient Greece, you will find that the Western scientific sages have studied many things that are of no use at all.
For example, conic sections were of no use at that time. Thousands of years later, when Western scientists Kepler, Newton and others were studying the movement of celestial bodies, they realized that this mathematical knowledge had to be used.
And this is the spirit of science. Of course, I'm not saying that everyone should do useless things.
Because science not only has the scientific spirit, but also has two other elements, that is, science has three elements: scientific purpose, scientific spirit, and scientific method.
The purpose is easy to explain, that is, to discover the laws hidden in nature or society. Note that it is not purely for practicality.
As long as it is a rule, it is a purpose. The spirit of science is what I just mentioned, the spirit of questioning everything and the spirit of inquiring into questions.
As for the scientific method, one is logical, just like the "Elements of Geometry" written by the Greek sages two thousand years ago, which is clear and reasonable in deduction; the other is empirical, that is, experimental verification.
This is the essence of science. It is precisely because we lack this kind of scientific literacy that we will gradually lag behind the great powers! "Although Li Yu didn't know much about writing political commentary between the revolutionary party and the constitutionalists, when it came to science, he was really familiar with it, and he wrote it eloquently and well-founded.
This question is very famous in history. It is also the famous question raised by Joseph Needham, an expert on the history of Chinese technology.
"The Needham Problem": Why did ancient China, which was culturally and technologically advanced, not develop modern science?
Regarding this question, Einstein once answered: The reason why modern science in Europe can develop is because of two things. One is formal logic that originated in the ancient Greek period, and its representative figure is Aristotle; Experimental science originated in the Renaissance, and its representative figure was Galileo Galilei.
The ancient Chinese sages did not understand formal logic or experimental science. Therefore, it is not surprising that modern science did not develop.
