After eating and drinking, Chen Muwu lay on the bed and drafted the topic for his next lecture.
In fact, it is very simple to hold such lectures on the theory of relativity. Today’s Chinese people admire the theory of relativity, not because of its scientific principles, but because it has led a great revolution in physics.
Unlike the strong resistance to the theory of relativity in the European and American circles, the Chinese quickly accepted this new theory.
First, because our country already had the kinematic idea of the principle of relativity as early as the Han Dynasty, and the concept of "ether" has had little impact on the history of modern domestic thought.
The second reason is that just when Eddington was observing the total solar eclipse on Principe Island in West Africa in 1919, the New Culture Movement in China was also in full swing.
The results of the total solar eclipse observations were sent back to London. The Times reported it with the title "Scientific Revolution, new theory about the universe, Newton's ideas overthrown!" 》.
This report traveled across the ocean and came to the land of Kyushu. The theory of relativity, an important theory that broke the absolute space-time view of Newtonian classical mechanics that had dominated the physics world for hundreds of years, quickly became a model of breaking the old and creating the new, and became "Mr. Sai" A flag is rising slowly over the academic world.
Russell visited China in 1920 and lectured at Bei University for a year. During this period, he strongly praised Einstein and his theory of relativity, further fueling the upsurge of relativity in China.
For a time, people who knew physics and people who didn't understand physics wrote articles in newspapers and magazines one after another, praising this new thing called the theory of relativity.
Even the great poet Xu Zhimo, who has nothing to do with physics, wrote an article titled "Ainstein Relativism, the Great Revolution in Physics". Using the excuse of popular science, he brought in a lot of private information and published it in Published in the April 1921 issue of Renovation magazine.
Chen Muwu cannot say more about whether the content of the article is correct or not.
——There is nothing more to say! It is obviously a theory in physics, but this guy named the theory of relativity with a philosophical term "ism" in the title.
You may say he is wrong, but physics can indeed be regarded as natural philosophy; you may say he is right, but you always feel that it sounds awkward.
These various performances in the cultural circles are enough to illustrate how popular the theory of relativity was among domestic intellectuals at that time.
Chen Muwu felt that most of these lectures should be aimed at people like Xu Zhimo, who are arty and elegant. They can talk about simple knowledge, but if they are more advanced, they will make people drowsy.
For example, he can talk about the "Einstein Train" in the special theory of relativity, but he can never talk about the "Einstein Elevator" in the general theory of relativity. They won't understand!
Now that such a lecture policy has been determined, Chen Muwu's next topic selection becomes much easier.
Finally, he settled on five topics, relativity and space, relativity and time, light, universe and time travel.
As for how to talk about these topics with gusto, Chen Muwu is not helpless. The two popular popular science books "A Brief History of Time" and "The Universe in a Nutshell" will not be released for fifty or sixty years, plus those The educational and entertaining "Feynman Physics Lecture Notes" and "New Concept Physics Tutorial", I just picked up some of them, didn't they become Chen Muwu's "original"?
Of course, we must also be careful not to overstep the scope of the plot and not quote some theories and hypotheses that have not yet been produced.
When he woke up the next day, Chen Muwu went to Beida University again and handed a note with five topics to Hu Shi.
The lecture is coming soon, so Beida University also needs to advertise in newspapers, so as to attract more audiences.
Then he went to the library on the first floor of the Red Building, found a seat with clear windows and sat down.
Chen Muwu originally thought about whether he could meet the bearded Mr. Shouchang from "The Age of Awakening". However, he later found out that the Beida Library had a new leader at the end of last year, and Mr. Li had a new position. , the director of the library was succeeded by Pi Zongshi.
Since he had no chance to meet, he took out the pen and notebook he carried with him and listed the outline of the lecture one by one.
Wherever you should tell a joke, where you should shake off the baggage, he also wrote them in one by one.
As he wrote, Chen Muwu also thought of a cross talk video he had watched on Station A, "Guidance and Application of Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity in Cross Talk Performance and Creation."
As a student in the Department of Physics, he and his partner once transplanted this cross talk to the school's New Year's Day party one year, which won the laughter of the entire audience.
It's a pity that time is tight and there is no time to rehearse, otherwise he would never think of reenacting this cross talk again today.
Maybe, in future generations, that little black fat man will also respectfully call him "senior".
Unexpectedly, the day before the lecture, changes came from Beida University, and the guarantee that Hu Shih had promised turned out to be a blank check.
When they first met, he said that Cai Yuanpei's departure from school would not affect the normal course of lectures. However, on Saturday afternoon, Hu Shi went to Ma Yuzao's house in East Banqiao to find Chen Muwu and told him that because the students had gone to the Ministry of Education to ask Cai Yuanpei to return to school, I'm back to school, so there aren't enough people for tomorrow's lecture.
Hu Shi asked him if he could postpone all lectures for a week, that is to say, the first lecture would be scheduled for next Thursday.
Chen Muwu didn't have any considerations of his own about this, saying that he was completely casual.
Hu Shi thanked him for his consideration and told Chen Muwu that Bei University would further subsidize him for the travel expenses incurred during his extra days in Beijing.
In fact, it is because of the insufficient number of students! It's just that American Minister Shulman suddenly wants to go to Qian Island to conduct an inspection of the proposals of the Washington Conference on the issue of China's Qian Island. It is expected to take about half a month.
Calculating the time, if Chen Muwu still lectures according to the original arrangement, Schulman will not be able to catch up with each lecture.
I spent a lot of money to invite people here, but in the end I didn't even listen to them. No matter how rich I am, I can't squander it like this!
Therefore, Hu Shicai had to use the excuse of insufficient number of students to postpone Chen Muwu's lecture so that Schulman could catch the last lecture after returning to Beijing.
Of course, Chen Muwu didn't know the real reason behind this. He only knew that he suddenly had an extra half week of preparation time, and suddenly he didn't know what he should do.
The outline of the lecture has been laid out. It is neither meaningful nor necessary to continue writing a detailed speech according to the outline, because the above content is extremely simple for him, but he still has to deal with raising his hands from time to time. If the audience asks questions, writing the speech in too detail will cause confusion.
Counting the time, two months have passed since I submitted my paper to Europe, and half a month has passed since Einstein's telegram was sent.
I wonder if that paper has been published in the journal? Has it had any impact on European and American circles? Are there more people who support him, or are there more people who criticize him?
Just when Chen Muwu was doing nothing, even planning to write another shocking paper, a childish voice suddenly came from outside the door: "Brother Chen, someone is looking for you outside the courtyard door."
