There was once a story: Columbus had supposedly just returned from the Americas and attended a dinner at someone's invitation. At the banquet, several Spanish gentlemen scorned his achievement, claiming that anyone could have succeeded, that anyone could have discovered the Americas.
Columbus then asked them to stand an egg upright on the table. They all failed and began challenging Columbus. Columbus lightly cracked one end of the egg, then stood it straight on the table.
In Chicago in 1893, Nikola Tesla created a metal egg to demonstrate his alternating-current equipment. It could truly stand upright under the force of a magnetic field without cracking its shell. This was a phenomenon produced by gravity and the gyroscopic effect.
Early the next morning, Navier arrived at the Seine River Administration accompanied by Laplace. His insights into Eulerian fluid mechanics had been offered only after passing Laplace's test. In truth, he was still at the stage of only half understanding it and had not yet reached a practically usable level.
He was currently studying at École Polytechnique and would be schoolmates with Sadi Carnot, who was enrolling the following year.
Georgiana was not too disappointed. After all, it was impossible to be lucky all the time and strike gold every single time.
Still, she spoke with Navier about the demands hydraulic engineering placed on fluid mechanics, hoping he would study hard and serve society in the future—the usual polite platitudes.
Navier was drenched in sweat. The moment Laplace permitted him to leave, he ran off.
Then La Rochefoucauld arrived with a girl.
The girl was named Oshana de Harcourt. She was the same age as Layla this year and hoped to accompany Georgiana to Italy to experience its local customs.
Oshana had a radiant face, dazzling like an opal. There had once