The Devil Who Dotes on Her Brother's Thesis (1)

Joseph did not take the outcome of his wager with Napoleon too much to heart. He remembered that in the movies about Napoleon he had watched in his previous life, there was a scene where Napoleon submitted a paper to the French Academy of Sciences. It seemed that Napoleon had written an analysis on social issues, which vanished without a trace after submission. Therefore, Joseph felt that it was unlikely he would lose this bet.

However, this paper still required careful preparation. In normal research, the first step would naturally be experimentation. But for Joseph, a transmigrator, this could be put on hold for a moment. First, he needed to prepare some mathematical tools for the subsequent arguments and calculations.

This made the problem complicated, because the two or three decades from the 1770s to the early 19th century were a period of great leaps in mathematics, especially in France. During this time, France produced a series of mathematicians whose names made Joseph shudder and break into a cold sweat even now. Even as a transmigrator, the mere thought of them brought back the fear of being dominated by Fourier, Laplace, and Lagrange, sending a chill up his spine that reached the back of his neck. Fresnel's ability to perfectly explain double-slit diffraction was inseparable from the achievements of these great and terrifying figures. If he wanted to directly replicate Fresnel's argument, he would almost certainly have to achieve several key mathematical breakthroughs first.

"This is truly 'to solve the Korean problem, we must solve Manchuria; to solve the Manchurian problem, we must solve China; to solve the Chinese problem, we must solve the United States.' When did my approach become like those brainless Showa staff officers who habitually create a bigger problem to solve a small one?" Joseph couldn't help but mock himself. However, considering the impact this experiment left in history, and influenced by his own vanity, Joseph still intended to write it. Of course, whenever possible, he would try to use existing mathematical methods to solve the problem. In principle, this was not impossible, but the entire reasoning process would be extremely clumsy and cumbersome. It was like taking a problem that could be solved with multiplication and insisting on using addition instead.

As it turned out, after trying for a few days, Joseph discovered that if he really wanted to completely bypass these yet-to-exist mathematical tools, the length of the paper would likely be even greater.

"Some necessary mathematical tools must be developed; otherwise, we can't really use addition to do multiplication," Joseph thought to himself.

After nearly a month of using relatively clumsy methods to bypass some advanced tools, while incidentally inventing some "lower-level" ones, Joseph finally completed his paper. Looking at the paper, which was as thick as a book, Joseph nodded with satisfaction and said, "Finally, I managed to compress the length by half. A paper that contains both a breakthrough in physics and a breakthrough in mathematics—this is truly a premium experience. The only pity is that I couldn't get feedback from the real world."

Joseph transcribed another copy of the paper and mailed one out. He kept the other to show Armand.

Upon seeing the pile of mathematical symbols in the paper, Armand frowned: "Joseph, I was wondering what you had been busy with all this time; so it was this. Hmm, I can barely understand the beginning—you think light should be a wave, not a particle? That's quite different from Sir Newton's view. Your experiment is also very interesting, but as for the rest, I recognize all the symbols, but to be honest, I have no idea what they mean when put together. Of course... this isn't meant for me, is it? It's for my uncle, right?"

"Yes," Joseph said, "I want to hear Mr. Lavoisier's evaluation of this."

"Hmm, alright. Tomorrow is Sunday, so I'll take this paper to him."

"Good morning, Mr. Lavoisier, is there anything you need?" a waiter asked, busily opening the door for the member of the French Academy of Sciences and famous chemist, Lavoisier.

"Ah, Mabeuf, is Mr. Laplace in today?" Lavoisier asked while handing his cane to the waiter.

"He is, Mr. Lavoisier. Mr. Laplace is in his office," the waiter replied.

"Very good. Please bring a pot of black tea to his office in a moment," Lavoisier said, striding down the corridor toward Laplace's office on the left.

"Very well, sir, I will bring it to you immediately."

Lavoisier walked to the door of Laplace's office and knocked gently, but there was no sound from within. Lavoisier smiled slightly and knocked again, yet there was still no response.

Lavoisier pushed the door open gently. He walked in and saw Laplace sitting at his desk, head bowed, shaking a quill pen as he calculated something. His desk was littered with used draft paper.

Lavoisier said nothing; he simply walked over, pulled up a chair, sat down opposite Laplace's desk, and waited quietly.

At that moment, Mabeuf walked in carrying a pot of black tea.

"Ah, Mabeuf, just put it there and pour me a cup," Lavoisier said.

Mabeuf placed the teapot on the side table, poured a cup of tea, and served it to Lavoisier.

"Hmm, that will be all. You may leave," Lavoisier said, taking the tea with a smile.

Mabeuf bowed slightly, walked out quietly, and pulled the door shut behind him.

Lavoisier sipped his tea while watching Laplace calculate; Laplace never looked up, failing to notice that someone was sitting across from him.

After a while, Laplace dipped his quill into the inkwell again, but failed to write any numbers on the draft paper—the ink had run out.

"To hell with it! I should get a larger inkwell," Laplace said, looking up and discovering Lavoisier sitting across from him.

"Mr. Lavoisier, why are you here? How long have you been here?" Laplace asked.

For a long time, Laplace had served as Lavoisier's assistant, and together they had determined the specific heat of many substances. In 1780, the two proved that the heat required to decompose a compound into its constituent elements was equal to the heat released when those elements formed the compound. This could be seen as the beginning of thermochemistry, and it was another milestone toward the law of conservation of energy, following Black's research on latent heat. Thus, the two had a very good relationship.

"Ah, I've been here for a while. What's this? It looks like you're verifying that 'Bonaparte Spot'?"

"Yes, Mr. Lavoisier," Laplace said, standing up. "Have you read that paper? It is so counter-intuitive. But, damn it, it can actually be observed in experiments... which means, if his entire derivation is correct, then light is definitely a wave. Hmm, Hooke would be rolling in his grave with joy."

Lavoisier said, "Yes, I read the paper yesterday morning. It was written by my art-loving nephew—you've met him—and his classmate, a young man named Joseph Bonaparte. He had Armand deliver it to me. I must say, although the conclusion is somewhat counter-intuitive, those two experiments are truly impressive. Especially that 'Bonaparte Spot.' Hmm, I imagine this young man has also submitted this paper to the Academy, hoping to win a prize. Regardless of anything else, just for the two experiments alone, I think it's worth six hundred francs, if not more."

"The few mathematical tools he established in this paper are worth that much alone," Laplace said. "However, the conclusion that light is a wave is something many will find hard to accept."

"Hard to accept? Just because Sir Newton said light is a particle?" Lavoisier said dismissively. "Aristotle had plenty of errors, too. Is Sir Newton a Pope who can never be wrong? But you know, I am always busy. There are too many mathematical calculations in this paper, and although he used some clever shortcuts, the workload is still immense. I have my own research, so yesterday I only verified his experiments and looked over his arguments in general. As for the specific mathematical details, I haven't had time to study them closely. You know, I am not as good as you in mathematics, and if we are talking about the speed of calculation, I don't think there is anyone in this world better than you. So, I intended to find you to verify it carefully. I didn't expect you to be doing it already."