The Professor's Beloved Equation

"Tell me, what's going on?" Shen Qi asked, showing concern upon hearing that his student was being isolated.

"There was a project that was very relevant to my major, and I really wanted to do it, but my application was rejected. A similar project proposed by another Associate Professor was approved very quickly."

Yu Lei was chatting and laughing with his student, Xiao Zhu.

After Xiao Zhu left, Yu Lei opened up, appearing somewhat depressed. "This algebra topic is perfect for me. I'm confident I can do it well, but now... what should I do? What can I do!"

This project is Yu Lei promotion to full professor. He is passionate about it, but he has encountered some obstacles.

Snap!

Shen Qi slammed his fist on the table and angrily shouted at Yu Lei, "Enough!"

Yu Lei was startled and dared not speak.

"What should I do? What can I do! Waaah, I'm so pitiful." Shen Qi artistically simulated Yu Lei's inner thoughts in an exaggerated, aggrieved tone.

Yu Lei stared at Shen Qi with a complicated expression, speechless.

"I..." Yu Lei came to see Shen Qi today, firstly to complain, and secondly to hear Shen Qi's advice.

As a result, Shen Qi gave Yu Lei a severe scolding, which caught Yu Lei completely off guard.

After scolding Yu Lei, Shen Qi stroked his black cat Maxwell and said calmly, "Yu Lei, be more assertive. How much money can an algebra project get approved for? At worst, you can raise your own funds and start your own project. After you go back, go back to what you were doing. Doing math projects isn't like playing a game where you can't choose a hero just because someone else has chosen one. He does his thing, you do yours, what's the big deal?"

"Okay, I understand." Yu Lei nodded, his mind gradually calming down.

"I don't want to get involved in your internal squabbles. I'll support you in your fair academic competition, but I won't do anything special for you in my name. However, if anyone, whoever they are, causes you unfair negative impacts in non-academic areas, then I'll say a few words of justice for you," Shen Qi concluded.

"Thank you, thank you, Little Brother Qi, I know what to do now." Yu Lei stood up to take his leave.

A few minutes later, Shen Qi left the office and headed towards the teaching building. He had a special lecture to give to undergraduate students that day.

This time, Shen Qi will not teach Advanced Mathematics, but Advanced Algebra, because the target audience is undergraduate students from the School of Mathematics and the School of Physics.

New regulations for undergraduate teaching in universities have been in effect for some time, with the state requiring the elimination of "easy" undergraduate courses and the establishment of more high-quality courses.

Professors are required to teach undergraduate courses, and the number of teaching hours is up to each university to arrange.

Yenching University stipulates that each full professor must teach no less than 10 undergraduate hours per semester, with no upper limit.

One class period is one academic hour. Shen Qi teaches at least ten classes to undergraduates per semester. He is very happy to teach undergraduates. Everyone knows this principle: a strong undergraduate population means a strong nation.

Shen Qi arrived at the large classroom, which was packed with students.

Two-thirds of the students are first-year students from the School of Mathematics, and the rest are first-year students from the School of Physics.

Advanced Algebra is a required course for mathematics students, and physics students in the physics department also take Advanced Algebra.

A strong undergraduate class makes a strong nation; strong freshmen make strong undergraduates even stronger.

To cultivate successors to socialism, we must start from the first year of university.

In addition to first-year students from the School of Mathematical Sciences and the School of Physics, some young teaching assistants and lecturers also came to the classroom. They came with a learning attitude to listen to Shen Qi's excellent courses.

Shen Qi came empty-handed, without bringing any lesson plans; the lesson plans were in his mind.

This Advanced Algebra class began with Shen Qi reciting a moving and expressive poem:

"The constantly repeating numbers and the ever-present imaginary numbers trace a simple trajectory, arriving at a certain point."

"Circle didn't appear anywhere, but a fairy descended to earth, π."

"π, oh π, she landed in e's territory and shyly developed feelings for i."

"π, e, and i are tightly packed together, but the appearance of 1 and its addition to them causes the world to change without warning."

"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, everything returns to zero."

Shen Qi finished his recitation with a smile, then turned to the audience and asked, "Why does it return to 0?"

The first-year students at Yenching University are very smart; one of them answered, "Euler's Identity!"

"Very good." Shen Qi nodded and wrote a classic formula on the blackboard: Euler's Identity, e^iπ+1=0.

"Professor Shen's teaching method is quite interesting." The young teaching assistants and lecturers were amazed. Everyone knows Euler's Identity, but it was the first time they had seen it introduced in the form of an essay.

"Actually, the original author of the passage I just recited was Yoko Ogawa, and I made some adaptations. Yoko Ogawa is a female writer who, in her novel 'The Professor's Beloved Equation,' beautifully and accurately interpreted Euler's Identity from a literary perspective. It seems that Ogawa is a female academic genius who excels in both arts and sciences." Shen Qi is also a well-read person; he has read more novels than many Chinese literature students.

"Ms. Ogawa's mission is complete. Now let's focus on today's protagonist— Euler."

Shen Qi tapped the Euler's Identity on the blackboard and said, "Euler was one of the greatest mathematicians. His academic ideas in many areas were ahead of their time. He foresaw things of the 20th century in the 18th century."

"The Euler's Identity on the blackboard is one of many Euler formulas, and it's a classic. Next, I'm going to write out another very amazing Euler formula, which was considered inconceivable in the 18th century."

Shen Qi turned around and wrote another Euler formula on the blackboard: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 +... = -1/12

At first glance, this seems impossible.

Adding positive integers infinitely together results in a negative number.

In the 18th century, after Euler wrote out this formula, no one could understand him because he was invincible, and therefore lonely.

Even in the 21st century, many people still find it difficult to understand why adding an infinite number of positive integers results in a negative number.

The students from the School of Mathematics and the School of Physics present were not surprised. They are among the most outstanding first-year science students in China. Standing at the theoretical foundation of the 21st century, they can understand Euler's formula that "the sum of infinite positive numbers is negative".

The students, including teaching assistants and lecturers, simply had no idea what Professor Shen was up to or what he was going to talk about next.

Next, Shen Qi said, "Please raise your hand if you participated in the Mathematical Olympiad during high school."

Swish swish swish!

Raise a bunch of arms.

The classroom atmosphere was quite lively; these days, more and more students are enthusiastic about academic competitions.

"So many? Is everyone doing math olympiads?" Shen Qi was somewhat surprised. 80% of the students in the room raised their hands to indicate that they had experience in math olympiad competitions.

Shen Qi: "Then I'll pick one randomly. Come on, young man, come up here and write out the proof of Euler's formula using a middle school method, without using Advanced Algebra knowledge."