Facing the Big Boss

When Li Qiwei said, "Everything in the world is Quantum, and existing physics is just an approximation," everyone was shocked by his statement.

The professor who asked the question was so stunned he couldn't speak, his mind a mess.

Although the answer resolved his confusion, it also sparked a new fear.

So, after more than three hundred years of development, physics still wasn't the most accurate truth, but merely a crude tool humanity used to describe the world.

This was more outrageous than any fairy tale.

Especially the last sentence, "This is the Creator's mercy upon humanity," which left the Oxford professor lost in thought.

Ever since Copernicus proposed the heliocentric model and Galileo established the modern scientific system, Europeans had long since broken free from the shackles of theology.

The physical system built by countless geniuses through their life's work had proven that humans didn't need gods to understand and transform the world.

And now, a genius in the field of physics was openly declaring their theories wrong, and that their usefulness was due to the Creator's mercy.

It was simply unacceptable.

Even the big shots present subtly shifted their gazes, clearly shocked by Li Qiwei's words, and whispers filled the venue.

If Li Qiwei knew their inner thoughts, he would surely be speechless.

He simply felt that the true nature of the universe was inherently incomprehensible, so an approximation wasn't bad, as long as it worked.

Since the West believed in God, he simply followed suit and mentioned the Creator's mercy on humanity.

He never expected such a huge reaction.

In fact, if he had a better understanding of European history and the philosophical concepts of epistemology and agnosticism, he wouldn't have said such things.

Ultimately, it was a matter of cultural differences between East and West.

Fortunately, Lord Kelvin, with his seasoned experience, immediately took control of the situation.

"Order! Order!"

"Bruce Lee is from Qing Dynasty, where they have different beliefs than ours, so please understand and respect each other."

"Today, we are only here to discuss scientific issues. You can consider the Creator as a higher-level physical theory."

Indeed, after hearing Lord Kelvin's explanation, everyone felt much better. And considering Li Qiwei's youth, they no longer dwelled on the matter.

At this moment, Li Qiwei finally understood the source of the problem and cast a grateful glance at Lord Kelvin.

The challenge continued!

Li Qiwei had fended off several professors consecutively, but he didn't become complacent or let his guard down, because the true heavyweights had yet to make their move!

After a while, no one else raised their hand to ask questions.

Since even several professors from Oxford University couldn't refute the Quantum theory, people in the audience couldn't help but murmur amongst themselves.

Just as Lord Kelvin was about to prompt further questions, the calm was broken.

A person at the front of the venue raised their hand and slowly stood up. Li Qiwei looked closely and saw it was Marie Curie.

At 33 years old, Marie Curie still possessed a captivating charm. Despite being a scientist, she exuded a vibrant aura, far from the stereotypical image.

It was no wonder the entire physics community admired this female scholar; she was like a rare flower blooming in a concrete jungle, truly precious.

She smiled slightly and said, "Bruce, I've wanted to meet you for a long time. I'm very fortunate to meet you in person today."

Li Qiwei quickly expressed his gratitude and returned the compliment.

Marie Curie said, "I acknowledge your Quantum concept is correct, but what does 'mechanics' in your Quantum refer to in your paper?"

"As you said earlier, Quantum is a fundamental physical property that only dominates in the microscopic world."

"Then is Quantum about the force of microscopic particles? But is this force different from the force in Newtonian mechanics?"

"Besides gravity and electromagnetism, are there other forces?"

"So, even if the Quantum concept is correct, it seems to be of little use. These forces can be explained by classical mechanics."

"For individual microscopic quanta, classical mechanics can be used, and for a collective composed of countless quanta, classical mechanics can still be used."

Wow!

When an expert makes a move, you know it. Everyone was impressed by Marie Curie's question and nodded in agreement.

Even Li Qiwei himself shivered. The angle of this question was too sharp; truly, the great minds were terrifyingly formidable.

Li Qiwei had only briefly mentioned Quantum in his paper at the time, without elaborating on the details.

This was because the explanation was extremely complex and also had to consider the context of the era.

Historically, true Quantum mechanics would only be proposed after 1927, refined by Dirac, Schrödinger, Heisenberg, and others.

It encompassed three key points: quantization, the uncertainty principle, and wave-particle duality.

Quantum mechanics posited that microscopic particles possessed both wave and particle properties, and their position and momentum could not be precisely measured simultaneously, existing only in probabilities.

Simply put, Newtonian mechanics studied the macroscopic world, and Quantum mechanics studied the microscopic world. (Note: This statement is not rigorous.)

Currently, Li Qiwei had only proposed quantization, not the latter two concepts, making Quantum mechanics appear rather thin.

More importantly, at that time, the consensus among physicists was that there were only two fundamental forces in the universe: gravity and electromagnetism.

The other two fundamental forces, the strong and weak nuclear forces, wouldn't be discovered for several decades.

Therefore, the current predicament was that Li Qiwei, using existing knowledge, couldn't perfectly explain Marie Curie's question.

For a moment, everyone in the hall watched Li Qiwei, silent and deep in thought.

Beside him, Planck was sweating for his student. He didn't know the answer to this question either and couldn't help at all.

Time ticked by. Just as Lord Kelvin was about to step in to smooth things over, Li Qiwei finally spoke, slowly saying:

"Thank you for your question, Marie Curie. That's an excellent question."

"Firstly, the 'Quantum' I mentioned is no different from the force in Newtonian mechanics."

"However, these two theories study force from different perspectives."

"Recently, I've been doing research on electrons at the Cavendish Laboratory, and I've observed some strange phenomena."

"Some electron movements seem unexplainable by classical mechanics or electromagnetic theory."

"So, your point about using classical mechanics to explain individual quanta simply won't work."

"But if you think in terms of 'Quantum' concepts, you'll arrive at very different results."

"Therefore, my 'Quantum' primarily studies the behavior of subatomic particles. As for the macroscopic world, Newtonian mechanics is currently sufficiently complete."

"Of course, 'Quantum' is a theoretical framework that needs more results to fill it out. The concept of 'Quantum' is the core of my thesis."

After Li Qiwei finished speaking, Wilson in the audience's eyes widened like saucers. He then looked at Rutherford beside him, whose expression was unperturbed.

Wilson was puzzled: "I'm part of the project team too, how come I didn't know about this issue?"

It turned out that Li Qiwei had discussed this privately with Rutherford. Both believed that their mentor, Thomson's, Plum Pudding Model was flawed.

Rutherford thought the model was the problem and that a different classical mechanical model could solve it; however, Li Qiwei firmly believed that classical theory was insufficient.

As they were still immature, they hadn't reported it to Thomson yet, which was why Wilson was unaware.

Poor old Will was once again struck down.

Thank you to [Shen Tu Zhi Cha], [Happy Kid], and [Mu Jiang Yin] for the monthly votes. Thank you to all book friends for the recommendation tickets. Old Xu pays attention every day. Thank you all for your support.