The summer is coming to an end and the autumn semester is coming. Those who had left school before, or went on vacation or returned to their hometown to visit relatives, have returned to Cambridge and the Cavendish Laboratory one after another.
Kapitsa, who was still coming back by train, brought home-made Russian sausages and distributed them to Chen Muwu, Blackett and colleagues in the laboratory.
Of course, he didn't forget Ye Gongchao's part. After all, last semester, he and Blackett had been taken to Magdalen College by Chen Muwu to eat and drink with his compatriot.
Chen Muwu had only eaten Harbin red sausage in his previous life, and he felt that what Kapitsa brought him was similar in taste to the red sausage. In short, it was delicious.
Kapitsa's return also caused a little change in Chen Muwu's life.
Kapitsa, who earned his doctorate over the summer and is no longer a student, has moved out of the room he rented at Mrs. Brown's house.
The Cavendish Laboratory appointed him assistant head of the Magnetism Department, and Trinity College also appointed Kapitsa as a researcher and arranged a room for him in the college.
Although they could still meet in the laboratory in the future, after a day of laboratory work, Chen Muwu had to go home alone.
Yes, the room arrangement at Trinity College is based on seniority just like this workplace. Although Chen Muwu is already well-known and has a good relationship with the dean, Old Thomson, he is theoretically a new student enrolling this fall. A new graduate student has still not been assigned a room of his own and can only continue to huddle in the small room upstairs in Mrs. Brown's house.
…
When a loud voice that sounded familiar and a little desperate appeared again in the Cavendish Laboratory, it meant that the director of the laboratory, Rutherford, had spent his long vacation on the Cornish seaside. , returned to the management position of the laboratory.
After being exposed to the sun all summer, the skin of both Rutherford and his son-in-law Fowler became a lot redder.
Like a lion returning to the jungle, the first thing Rutherford did after returning to Cavendish was to patrol his territory from laboratory to laboratory and experimental platform to laboratory, and patiently ask himself My staff and students, what achievements and progress have they made during the holidays.
After completing the visible light scattering experiment, Chen Muwu rarely went to that laboratory again.
Soon after, the laboratory was also taken back by Chadwick, who was responsible for the overall arrangement, and used for other purposes.
These days, Chen Muwu basically stayed in the Cavendish conference room, holding the typewriter in the laboratory, typing out Chen Tsang's paper and Chen Ning's paper word by word. What he is currently typing is about matter waves. of an article.
Chen Muwu originally thought that the typewriter in the Cavendish Laboratory was much more advanced than the one he bought in Qihai.
But in fact there is no difference between the two. All mathematical formulas and special symbols must be left blank in advance, and then use a pen to fill in these contents one by one after typing.
A typewriter that can print various mathematical and physical symbols such as integrals, sums, Laplace operators, and Greek letters may have to wait until the 1960s and 1970s to be developed.
Then computer technology became more and more mature, and TeX gradually emerged. With this convenient and fast tool, the papers of mathematicians and physicists will become more and more sophisticated.
"Hey! Chen, long time no see!" Rutherford opened the door of the conference room, "What good stuff are you writing again?"
"Director," Chen Muwu stood up. He had long heard Rutherford's loud voice through several doors, "it's just a paper on electronics, and I just got a simple idea."
Rutherford had a smile on his face: "When I was on vacation in Cornwall, I read the book "On the Spirit of the Chinese" you gave me. I remember a sentence in it, saying that modesty is a part of your nation. An excellent character.
"Now I finally believe Daoke Tuogu's point of view, because although my student Chen Muwu has made great achievements in physics, he still maintains the same low profile as when I first met him. And humility!
"Sitting on the beach, looking at the blue sea, I occasionally think about this question, that is, we are facing the same sea, why can you come up with a novel idea on the ship, and finally I found that bright line after scattering from the experiment, but all I was thinking was, how many delicious Cornish pasties should I eat for lunch today?”
The scattered bright lines mentioned by Rutherford were actually the first experiment Chen Muwu did after coming to the Cavendish Laboratory, which was about Chen scattering of visible light.
The excuse Chen Muwu gave at the time was that when he was riding a ship, he saw the blue sea and thought of Rayleigh scattering, and then he thought about doing further research.
So Rutherford, who also went to the beach for vacation, only thought of mentioning it when he saw the sea.
Rutherford lit the pipe, took a deep breath and continued: "Then I saw the experimental paper you published with Kapitsa and Blackett, which knocked Bohr, my most proud student, out of the water.
“It was then that I realized that you can see through the sea and I can’t, not because I am old, but because you are a rare genius!
"Tell me, Genius Chen, is there anything interesting that has fascinated you recently?"
Rutherford's words made Chen Muwu feel embarrassed: "Director, this is still a problem caused by photons.
"I recently came up with a strange idea. Since wave-like light can be regarded as a particle, can something that is a particle itself also be a wave? For example, an electron?
"If according to the current photon theory, the momentum of a photon can be expressed as p=hν/c. Assuming that the electron is also a wave,...
"...
“Putting this formula into the above one, you can get that the wavelength of the electron wave is equal to Planck’s constant divided by the momentum of the electron, λ=h/p.
"This idea is so interesting that I plan to turn it into a paper."
Chen Muwu Luoliba talked about a lot of derivation processes, but in fact only the first few sentences are the essence.
Apparently Rutherford also caught the key point of his words: "Chen, you mean, electrons are also a kind of wave? Oh my god, thank you for telling me these things first. If your view was known to the old director, His glasses will definitely fall to the ground because of your anger!"
Thomson Sr., the former director of the Cavendish Laboratory, was the first to discover electrons in 1897, breaking the curse that atoms cannot be divided again. For this discovery, he won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics. .
If the old Thomson, who is now nearly seventy years old, had known that Chen Muwu said that the electron is not only a particle, but also a wave, and if he had not been so angry that he had a heart attack on the spot, maybe the old Thomson would have actually waved. The golf club hit Chen Muwu's head as if it were a giant golf ball.
Rutherford's voice, which was already loud, gradually became louder.
In other words, what he said next can no longer be regarded as a speech, but more like a superior's instruction to a subordinate who messed up his work: "Chen, I don't think you should think about these things every day in your mind." Ethereal things, the feeling you give me now is that you are becoming more and more like a theoretical physicist sitting back and talking.
“But Chen, you should also know that theories are not always so reliable.
"Please think about it carefully. You, Kapitsa, Blackett and others only used the trajectories of recoil electrons captured in experiments to come up with the incomprehensible theory put forward by your senior brother Bohr. Refuting that individuals are imperfect.
“Although his theory is indeed outrageous, if there is no clear experimental evidence, many people may still believe it.
"Mr. Chen, I hope you will stop playing games with their symbols like a theorist, but instead engage in more hands-on experimental work and return to experiments.
"After all, in the Cavendish Laboratory, we are the ones who use experiments to prove the true nature of nature!"
Kapitsa, who was doing experiments in the open laboratory, also heard Rutherford's loud voice.
He joked with Blackett across the long table with a little gloating: "Patrick, you see, even a genius like Chen Muwu, who has been the darling of the laboratory for several months, still cannot escape the crocodile's loud voice. .”
Blackett nodded, and it seemed that he agreed with Kapitsa's point of view.
As Kapitsa said, Chen Muwu had been in the Cavendish Laboratory for nearly four months, and this was the first time Rutherford lost his temper with him.
During these four months, as a VIP spectator, he watched countless "live broadcasts" of other students in the Rutherford Teaching Laboratory at close range.
Chen Muwu knew that the strong man from New Zealand standing in front of him was actually a gentle and tough man with a sharp mouth but a soft heart.
Although Rutherford appeared to be strict on the surface, in fact, everything he did was wholeheartedly for the good of his students.
As long as you can convince him with facts and reasons, Rutherford will always sincerely apologize to everyone he has criticized recklessly, regardless of his status.
Chen Muwu complained in his heart that Rutherford's temper was just like Sun Wukong's face. He could change at will. If he could patiently listen to what others had to say, he might not have to apologize so many times in the future, including this time.
Chen Muwu was busy complaining about others, but he didn't want to think about the fact that he had just inadvertently said something that was considered deviant by today's physicists.
Electron is a kind of wave?
After hearing such words, who would let him continue to spread this evil idea?
(End of chapter)
