Into Unscientific

Chapter 309 – I, Luo Feng, Have Been Wandering For Half My Life… (Thanks To Passing Libra

Chapter 309 I, Luo Feng, have been wandering for half my life. (Thanks to the lord for the reward from the passing Libra!)

In the study.

Looking at Gauss with a complex and dignified complexion.

The curiosity in Xu Yun’s heart, which was already close to full value, couldn’t help but become more vigorous.

According to data from the Gauss Museum at the University of Göttingen.

Until 2022.

The museum collected a total of 68 letters sent or received by Gauss.

Among them, 41 Gauss are the recipients, and the other 27 Gauss are the senders.

The number of the former is basically fixed, while the latter will increase by one or two every few years:

Gauss was famous all over the world when he was alive, so quite a few of his letters were preserved and collected.

Some of these letters are considered family heirlooms.

Some are secretly collected by collectors, and they do not choose to publish them until they die.

Except God, no one knows how many letters Gauss has survived.

And in these letters to and from.

Acknowledged that the most famous letter is a letter home written by Gauss to his son-in-law Heinrich Ewald.

Heinrich Ewald, like Weber, is one of the famous Seven Gentlemen of Göttingen.

Gauss wrote the letter in November 1837, which was a few days before the German version of “Book on the Bus”.

He told Heinrich Ewald in this letter:

He personally does not agree with Heinrich Ewald’s approach. If he can wait for the opportunity, there may be variables.

But since he was determined to do it, he chose to respect his son-in-law’s choice.

And told Aiwad not to shrink back, even if he sacrificed his life, he must complete his ‘mission’.

At the same time, if something happens to Heinrich Ewald and Weber, he will pay for the future living expenses of the two families, without worrying about trivial matters such as money.

This letter does not involve academics, but it fully demonstrates Gauss’ character:

Be cautious, and focus on stability, but as long as you choose a direction, you will never look back.

Don’t credulously believe, but believe in promises, and promises must be followed.

In addition to this letter from home, most of Gauss’s letters are related to academics:

For example, a letter discussing the semicircular shadow problem with Lagrange, a letter stating that he discovered the least square method before Legendre, etc.

The second level of important letters, there are about seven or eight letters.

The letter Gauss handed to Xu Yun was obviously not sent, so who would be the person who wrote it?

The first proposer of non-Euclidean geometry Lobachevsky?

Or Cauchy?

Or some other authority?

But can these people really make Gauss show the emotion he had before?

Holding this mentality, Xu Yun accepted the letter from Gauss.

The envelope of the letter was dark yellow in color, and it felt flimsy when you picked it up, exuding a stale smell.

I think it has been some years.

On the dark yellow cover of the envelope, the relevant information of the letter is written:

recipient:

Prof. Johann Karl Friedrich Gauss.

Shipping Address:

Department of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany.

mailing address:

Department of Classical Mathematics, University of Oslo, Norway.

Sender:

Niels Henrik Abel.

and many more? !

The moment Xu Yun saw the sender’s name, Xu Yun’s eyes were fixed!

Niels Henrik Abel?

He quickly confirmed the name again, and the pan-language plug-in that came with the halo clearly translated it into Chinese characters:

Nils Henrik

Abel.

Then Xu Yun suddenly thought of something, carefully and quickly opened the envelope, and took out the letter inside.

I saw the beginning of the letter, with a title written impressively:

”The Argumentation Process About the Unary Cubic Equation Has No Algebraic General Solution”.

Xu Yun’s eyes lingered on this title for a long time, then slowly raised his head, and thoughtfully said to Gauss:

”Professor Gauss, could this be the letter?”

Gauss nodded with a heavy face, and exhaled a breath of turbid air in an extremely complicated way, affirming Xu Yun’s guess:

“That’s right, Abel once wrote me a letter in 1824, in which he successfully demonstrated that the quintic equation in one variable has no algebraic general solution, but…”

“But I left this letter in the corner and never opened it.”

“I didn’t know such a thing until he perfected the theory of elliptic functions before Jacobi, so I immediately contacted him with a professorship at the University of Berlin, but it was too late—when the University of Berlin sent out the employment letter , Abel has passed away for two days.”

“So I have kept this letter in my collection, always reminding myself that I made such a big mistake, which indirectly led to the fall of a mathematical genius.”

Looking at Gauss with a face full of regret and remorse, Xu Yun also felt very heavy.

It turns out that the author of this letter is Abel

No wonder Gauss made such an expression.

Throughout the history of modern mathematics of mankind.

The demise of three young people is the most regrettable.

They are Galois, Ramanujan and Abel.

Among them, the situation of Galois was briefly introduced earlier. A considerable part of the cause of his death can be attributed to his political personality.

In fact, Galois had a very good background. His father was a mayor, his mother was also a member of parliament, and his university tutor was the famous Cauchy.

But precisely because of the strong political atmosphere in the family, Galois was trained to be a political fanatic since childhood.

This kind of personality caused Cauchy to be dissatisfied with this student.

Although he often encourages Galois by correspondence, he never introduces his contacts to Galois.

Later, Galois encountered a political conspiracy, and finally died in the shady scene of the duel.

Ramanujan’s cause of death was mental and physical illness:

He was first diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1917, and at the end of the same year, he was unable to go home because of World War I, so he tried to commit suicide by lying on the train.

After failing to commit suicide, he returned to India in 1919 and finally died of illness in Madras in 1920.

Both Galois and Ramanujan have left a lot of wealth to mankind, and it is a pity to think about it every time.

For example, Galois wrote the group theory three days before the duel, and Ramanujan left a large number of manuscripts and notes, which contained a large number of unproven formulas and propositions.

Many mathematicians have devoted themselves to the research of Ramanujan’s manuscripts. It was not until 1997 that they finally completed part of them and compiled them into five volumes for publication.

And if it is said that Galois and Ramanujan’s causes of death more or less have their own factors.

Then Abel’s demise was completely a trick of fate.

Abel was born in Norway, and his family conditions were not very good since he was a child, but he still relies on his talent to teach himself.

Abel was known as one of the most handsome mathematicians when he was an adult, and his appearance was comparable to that of Plank when he was young. (Everyone can look for photos, really handsome)

Abel’s father died when he was 18 years old, and Abel, who was still in college, suddenly had to take on the burden of taking care of the whole family.

Fortunately.

The teachers at the University of Oslo he was studying at didn’t give up on this genius, and they funded Abel together.

As for Abel, he rewarded them with his grades.

In Abel’s era, solving quintic equations in one variable was a very popular topic.

During Abel’s study, the achievement closest to the correct answer in the mathematics world was a statement made by an Italian mathematician named Ruffini.

The discussion was more than five hundred pages long, but it still didn’t give a correct conclusion.

Then Abel said that my plug-in has been activated, let me do it:

He used six pages of manuscript paper to perfectly solve the problem of solving the quintic equation in one variable, and also made some supplements to Ruffini’s exposition – and the reason why Abel only used six pages was because he didn’t have much money to pay for printing up.

Later, Abel sent the six-page manuscript to a person, hoping to be appreciated by the other party.

That’s right.

This person is Gauss.

However, fate made another joke with Abel.

Gauss in 1824 was almost the peak of the semi-holy Dzogchen in the words of the novel, and he was about to break through the holy rank. He was the only semi-holy in the world.

So naturally, he can receive a large number of letters every day-according to Gauss’s self-report, he received more than 3,000 letters a year at most.

Students who have taken the college entrance examination in future generations should know it.

When the teachers introduce the college entrance examination composition, they often tell everyone one thing:

Because there are too many essays in the college entrance examination, the marking teacher often just scans them in a hurry, and quickly grades them according to the handwriting and the beginning.

Gauss and the college entrance examination are only one word away, so Gauss used similar methods when reading letters:

He will look at the handwriting and title first, and then decide whether to continue reading based on the content at the beginning.

And Abel’s handwriting

Let’s put it this way.

Compared with Abel’s calligraphy, Lao Ai can be regarded as a great calligrapher.

In addition, Abel also added a self-deprecating content at the beginning, so Gauss at the time naturally had an impression:

The words are ugly, the beginning is long-winded, and you can solve the problems that others have not solved in 500 pages in only 6 pages?

So Gauss naturally threw the letter aside and ignored it.

Abel, who didn’t wait for Gauss’s reply, wandered around, arrived in Paris at the second stop, and handed over his manuscript to the French Academy of Sciences.

The secretary of the Academy of Sciences was shocked by the manuscript and sent it to Cauchy for review.

That’s right.

It’s Cauchy again.

But everyone knows that apart from high productivity, Cauchy also has another feature in writing:

The papers he wrote are very long.

For this reason, there were not enough places in mathematics magazines to publish his papers, so he set up a special issue in a fit of anger to publish his own papers.

So when he got a 6-page paper, Cauchy couldn’t take it seriously.

So Abel waited in Paris to no avail, and caught a cold, so he had no choice but to return to Norway.

Later, he studied academics while working as a substitute teacher, and finally perfected the theory of elliptic functions before Jacobi, and he became famous just now.

Jacobi was one of Gauss’ apprentices, and it was at that time that Gauss recalled the letter:

Abel really solved a big problem in mathematics with six pages of manuscript!

So Gauss quickly wrote to the University of Berlin, hoping to hire Abel as a professor.

At the same time, four academicians of the French Academy of Sciences directly wrote to the King of Norway, hoping to knight Abel.

If this is a novel written by me eating tomatoes, then the story should end with a perfect and harmonious ending.

pity

Destiny probably likes to watch the works of Jiangnan old thief.

So just like the old thief sword Erika, fate ruthlessly gave Abel another sword:

What he caught in Paris was not a cold, but hematogenous disseminated pulmonary tuberculosis, which was more serious than Ramanujan’s.

In the past few years, Abel didn’t even pay for the medicine, so when the illness broke out again, he was powerless to say goodbye to the world.

Died at the age of 26.

And in this short period of 26 years.

Abel left behind Abel integral, Abel function, Abel integral equation, Abel group, Abel series, Abel partial sum formula, Abel fundamental theorem, Abel limit theorem, Abel summable A series of theorems or concepts such as sex.

His ranking in the history of mathematics can be ranked around 15, in the evaluation of Mr. Qiu Chengtong:

“If he (Abel) lives forty years longer, Fermat’s Last Theorem, which has plagued the mathematics community for more than four hundred years, may not be able to be proved by Wiles.”

The fall of Abel was also one of the few pain points in Gauss’ life.

In the study.

Looking at the letter in Xu Yun’s hand, Gauss let out a long sigh, and his figure became a little stooped:

“I’ve been blaming myself all these years. If I had been more patient and read this letter, Abel’s life trajectory might not have been so miserable.”

“I may not be the culprit or pusher, but I have actually influenced Abel’s life trajectory.”

“So I have always regarded this incident as a great regret, and it is hard to let go every time I think about it.”

Looking at Gauss, who was a little sluggish, Xu Yun didn’t speak.

be honest.

There are many reasons for Abel’s untimely death, but one thing can be expected:

That is, if Gauss had read this letter and recommended Abel to a German university.

Then Abel will at least not go to Paris again.

If he doesn’t go to Paris, he won’t encounter the Paris flu of 1825, and the probability of getting hematogenously disseminated tuberculosis will also be greatly reduced.

So Gauss said that he indirectly caused Abel’s fall, which is indeed true in a sense.

But on the other hand.

Gauss’s choice to snub the letter is equally understandable.

Because of Gauss’ status at the time, 99% of the contents of those letters were boring civil science or harassment.

Like the mailbox of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in later generations, the content is either to solve the curvature bubble or to solve the controllable nuclear fusion. If you are lucky, you can also see the disappearance of antimatter.

In this case, it is really unrealistic for you to ask Gauss to read the past one by one.

Therefore, Abel’s life is completely a tease of fate.

Abel missed all the nodes that could change the trajectory of his fate, and finally walked into the abyss step by step.

Later generations have a more extreme statement, the content is very simple:

Galois is stupid, but Abel is poor.

Then Gauss turned his attention to the letter in Xu Yun’s hand, sighed, and said to Xu Yun:

“Student Luo Feng, I’m 73 years old now, and my family knows about my family affairs. I’m afraid I will return to heaven in a short time.”

“No matter how big the regret is, there will be no chance to regret or reflect in the future.”

Then he moved his gaze up from the envelope, and looked at Xu Yun:

“But Luo Feng, you are different, you are still young, and there is still a long way to go in the future.”

“So after much hesitation, I decided to send this letter to you.”

“The discussion on the solution of the quintic equation in the manuscript is no longer an unsolved mystery to today’s mathematics community, so the academic value of the letter is not high, but it is of extraordinary significance in some respects.”

“I hope that you will never miss this kind of regret in your future life. Of course, don’t be someone else’s regret.”

“In addition, if you encounter any math problems in the future, you can come to me at any time.”

Xu Yun was silent for a long time before nodding heavily:

“I see, Professor Gauss.”

“professor?”

Gauss’s decibel suddenly increased a bit, he pointed to the manuscript on the table, and then pointed to the letter in Xu Yun’s hand:

“Student Luo Feng, I gave you so many things, but you still call me a professor?”

Xu Yun was slightly taken aback, but soon, he realized something.

I saw him glance at the letter in his hand, took a deep breath, and said:

“I see, Mr. Gauss.”

Note:

The fan title event is open, in the book review area—it’s not what this chapter says, the rules are the same as before.

The dungeon is about to enter the final stage, this time it is real (look at my sincere little eyes)

(end of this chapter)