At the same time, on Xupu Road in the public concession, inside the German Consulate General in Shanghai.
Till, the German Consul General in Shanghai, rarely got up early today because he made an appointment with a guest to have breakfast with him yesterday.
This mysterious guest is none other than Einstein, the great scientist who has been in the limelight among foreigners in the beach for the past two days.
Thiel did not attend the seminar on the theory of relativity held at the Ministry of Industry Bureau yesterday, as his counterparts from other countries did.
The anti-Semitic movement in Germany was in full swing. As an authentic old German with the tricolor flag, he was naturally unwilling to participate in a seminar dominated by Jews. He could only make another appointment with Einstein, a great scientist, in advance. time.
In fact, Einstein is now a Swiss, but now that the theory of relativity has become famous, Einstein has won the Nobel Prize, and Einstein has been working in Germany for the past ten years, this has allowed Germany to return to the This talent is your own.
Regarding Einstein’s nationality, after the theory of relativity was confirmed, he told a reporter from The Times a very sad joke: “If the theory of relativity is messed up, then the Germans will definitely say that they are Swiss. , while the Swiss would say they are Jewish.”
This breakfast was very dull, mainly because it was really difficult for an official and a scientist to find anything in common.
The two exchanged useless information all over the world, until Tier couldn't help but asked about a rumor that is very popular nowadays:
"Doctor, in this world, are there really only a dozen (twelve) people who understand the theory of relativity today? Apart from you, who are the remaining eleven people?"
Einstein smiled and said: "This is just an exaggeration. In fact, as long as a person has a college-level mathematical foundation, he can basically understand what is said in the theory of relativity. Yesterday's discussion At the meeting, there was a Chinese who was able to talk eloquently about the theory of relativity. In my opinion, his level was already very high."
"I also saw relevant reports in today's "Zi Lin Xi Bao"," Tier pointed to the newspaper rack in the corner of the room, "It said that you praised the Chinese as Ramanujan of physics." 1]', is this person's level really that high?"
"Actually, after yesterday's interview, I chatted with this Chinese guy. When I returned to the hotel room in the evening, I read another paper he gave me.
“His head seems to be full of novel ideas, and I think over time, he may be able to reach a higher level in physics than Ramanujan did in mathematics.
“I plan to recommend this young Chinese to Professor Planck to study at Humboldt University in Berlin.
"Mr. Consul General, I would like to ask your consulate to send me a few telegrams. Is it inconvenient?"
"Doctor, I am very happy to serve you. After breakfast, please write the address and content of the telegram on paper and give it to me. I will ask the people in the Telecommunications Department to complete it as soon as possible."
After the breakfast meeting, Till kept his promise and asked his secretary to hand over the two telegrams written by Einstein to the Telecommunications Office of the Consulate General.
The message was converted into a telegraph signal by the telegraph operator and sent out from the Sea of Cihai, via Tianqi to Beijing, then crossed the Mongolian Plateau, merged into the Siberian telegraph line at Kyaktu, then crossed the Ural Mountains, arrived at the Pod Plain and was divided into Two parts: one continued west along the cable, the other stayed local and ticked into the Berlin telegraph office.
Electrical signals traveling at the speed of light easily outperformed the earth's rotation. The whole of Europe was still in a quiet night. Only the night postal train from Marseille was tireless and still sputtered on the rails, spewing white gas.
At dawn, the yawning postman rode his bicycle and delivered a package of letters from all over the world to Humboldt University.
After breakfast, Professor Max Planck walked into his office leisurely. Although the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against the mark had appreciated to one to eighteen thousand, he obviously did not need to be like a postman because of his high moral character. For today Worrying about where to buy cheap brown bread.
"Professor, these are the letters I received this morning. I put the letters from world-renowned universities and academies of science at the top." The secretary of the academy sent Planck a stack of envelopes that had been sorted. "In addition, There is also a telegram here from the Consulate General in Jihai, I wonder if the people at the telegraph office made a mistake."
The secretary said this, but in fact he was very curious about what information these diplomats in the Far East had sent.
"Would you know if you open it and take a look?" Planck was also puzzled. "Oh, it turned out to be a telegram from Albert. No wonder, he is giving lectures there now."
Anyway, when the consulate sent a telegram, it was not his own money, so Einstein wrote the contents of the telegram very specifically and explained in detail what happened in Sihai in the past two days.
He enthusiastically introduced Chen Muwu, a young Chinese man, to Planck and praised his talent in the fields of relativity and quantum theory.
He also said that a paper by Chen on light quanta has been sent to the "Annals of Physics" in advance and will arrive in the near future. He hopes that Planck can use the paper to check the physics level of this young man and give him some approval when the paper is published. s help.
In addition, Professor Planck is asked to tell Professors Geiger and Botte that if they have time, they can design experiments to verify whether the theory mentioned in Chen's paper is correct.
Finally, he hoped that Planck would invite the young man to study in Berlin in the name of Humboldt University.
Planck had no prejudice against the Chinese. He had his first Chinese student, Xia Yuanxi, more than ten years ago.
Although Xia Yuanzhen's official funding was also lost due to the fall of the Qing Dynasty, and he was forced to drop out of school and return to China, the correspondence between the two never stopped.
In Planck's mind, although Xia Yuanxi's physics level was not highly evaluated, after the student returned to China, he was able to serve as the head of the science department at the highest university in his country.
I wonder what the physics level of another Chinese person who was highly praised by Einstein this time is?
Thinking of this, Planck wanted to read what kind of paper this Chinese submitted, especially the content was about light quanta. After all, he can be regarded as the founder of quantum physics.
So Planck raised his head and asked the college secretary who was still wandering around the office: "Where are the papers recently received for submission to the Annals of Physics? Have any been sent from the Far East?"
*****
[1] Author's note: Ramanujan is one of the most famous mathematicians in the history of British India. He is obsessed with number theory, especially summation formulas involving mathematical constants such as π and prime numbers, as well as integer splitting. He is accustomed to using intuition (or number sense) to derive formulas and does not like to prove, and his theories are often proved to be correct after the fact. He left behind an unproven formula that inspired the work of several Fields Medalists.
