Einstein went to the Patent Director and said: "Director, this is a new patent on the transmission shaft differential submitted by Mr. Li Yu, an academician of the Royal Society. After my preliminary verification, there are no problems. You can stamp it and approve it after your review."
Already."
The director looked confused: "Li Yu? This name seems familiar."
"Director, if there is nothing else, I will leave today. I will make up the shift in two days!" After Einstein said that, he took Li Yu home.
The director sat at his desk and was stunned: "Li Yu, who is Li Yu?"
At Einstein's home, Li Yu saw his wife, Mileva.
This is a somewhat tragic woman. We can only blame Einstein for being somewhat romantic and flirtatious...
When Einstein entered the door, he said loudly: "Hurry! Mileva, prepare some good Ceylon black tea. I want to do some research with Academician Li Yu."
"Oh my God, it's really him!"
Mileva is also a mathematician, so of course she knew Li Yu's name, so she immediately started preparing things for the reception.
"Let me help you." Lu Bicheng stepped forward and said.
When it comes to these housework tasks, Easterners are much more meticulous and refined than Western women.
"It's really ingenious!" Mileva couldn't help but admired.
However, Einstein didn't bother to drink tea at all. He came to his desk and took out his latest manuscript: "I received your manuscript a few months ago and immediately started thinking about time. But I suffered from the lack of mathematical tools.
, my research has advanced to this point, and it seems that I have encountered an invisible wall that I cannot get through."
Of course Li Yu understood that this was the famous Minkovsky's geometric space theory. Historically, it was with his help that Einstein completed the mathematical proof.
But Li Yu was also familiar with this thing, so he took the pen and said, "That's okay."
He skillfully wrote on the paper.
In less than half an hour, I wrote several pages of mathematical calculations.
Einstein was fascinated by it: "When you face complex mathematical problems, it's like breathing. It really amazes me."
Li Yu said: "But the premise is still what we mentioned earlier. We must comply with an important basic assumption, that is, the speed of light remains unchanged. Based on this, we can use the Lorentz transformation to complete the conversion of space and time in four-dimensional space.
.”
"It's so gratifying. I didn't expect you to have such a view!" Einstein felt that he had finally met a confidant.
For a long time after the theory of relativity was proposed, few people could understand it. In the first few years, there were no more than ten people in the world who understood the theory of relativity. In a sense, Einstein was still relatively lonely on the road of scientific research.
, especially in terms of relativity.
Of course this also highlights his greatness.
Li Yu said: "After the transformation of time and space, it does look shocking. For a pair of twins, if the elder brother takes a spaceship close to the speed of light, he will be much younger than the younger brother when he comes back."
This is the famous twin paradox in the theory of relativity.
"Before, I couldn't make this problem logically consistent. Now that I have a transformation relationship, it seems much more reasonable." Einstein said.
However, because the current speed that humans can achieve is too low, it is impossible to conduct relevant experiments.
Experimental physicists have always been at a high level before, and then theoretical physicists turned around. It is now a transition point, and even the status of experimental physicists seems to be higher.
If you can't make a test, it really lacks some convincing.
Throughout the next day, Li Yu and Einstein studied more transformation relationships, such as the famous scaling effect.
It also involves a very tangled issue: dynamic mass.
In the future, most people can already understand that when running at high speed, time and length will change due to different reference systems.
But there is still a lot of controversy about dynamic mass.
But at present, most scientists can accept it; but there are still some who cannot accept it, such as the famous Landau.
But they also have to admit that many places cannot be explained without the perspective of dynamic mass.
For example, why a massive object will never reach the speed of light is because of the Lorentz transformation of dynamic mass.
Once an object has mass, no matter how small its mass is, even if it is just a tiny electron, if it reaches the speed of light, its dynamic mass will become infinite.
(Actually, because the denominator in the transformation formula becomes 0, it has no mathematical meaning.)
Isn't this just like creating a singularity?
Therefore, any object with static mass cannot reach the speed of light, let alone the so-called super-light speed in some science fiction themes.
It can be explained to some extent by using the curvature of space, but simply accelerating an object to the speed of light is impossible and requires much more energy than all the energy in the entire universe combined.
The transformation of relativity involves many perspectives of time and space. In later generations, most of them understood it after a long period of study. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, even the twin paradox was a super big deal.
After a day of research, Einstein was extremely excited: "Sir, you are really talented!"
Li Yu smiled and said: "This is just a part. There will be many theories about time and space later."
"Yes, I still have a lot of ideas, but with these derivation from my husband, I feel that the follow-up work will be much easier," Einstein said.
To sum up, what Li Yu is now proposing is the core assumption of the theory of relativity that the speed of light remains unchanged, as well as the shrinkage effect, the slowdown of time, etc., and he uses his mathematical abilities to derive them.
As for the other core mass-energy equation of special relativity, I’ll leave it to Lao Ai to publish it himself.
In other words, the derivation of the real energy equation is not complicated, and it is not difficult to understand. Just use the kinetic energy formula E=mv of classical mechanics, then substitute the relativistic mass, and then use differential derivation to derive it. Even a high school science student can understand it.
Li Yu, the more complex mathematical content related to four-dimensional space and time in the special theory of relativity, has already been solved by Einstein.
However, there are still many physical explanations that Einstein himself needs to continue to improve. This is no small project, and it will be enough for Einstein to "focus on fishing" in the patent office for the next few months.
Li Yu said: "I finally understand why your hair is like this."
Einstein wondered: "Why?"
Li Yu smiled and said, "You have to go to work every day and study so many physics problems. It would be strange if you didn't."
Einstein also laughed and said: "I don't want to be laughed at by the professors at ETH Zurich anymore, I want them to know what real physics is!"
——It won’t take long.
Li Yu looked at the piles of manuscript papers on the table and said: "The logical arrangement and specific papers still need to be done by your Excellency yourself."
Einstein said: "Of course, I will co-sign the article with you, after all, you have made so many contributions."
Einstein gave half of the credit for the invention of special relativity to Li Yu.
Li Yu smiled and said, "Actually, I don't do much."
"That's quite a lot!" Einstein said, "otherwise I wouldn't have been able to sort out so many problems so quickly."
"All right."
Anyway, it didn't stop him from winning the Nobel Prize for the photoelectric effect and the dazzling mass-energy equation, not to mention the truly awesome general theory of relativity.
It's just that when future generations learn the theory of relativity, they have to talk more about Li Yu when they talk about the profound invariance of the speed of light and the transformation of relativity.
Einstein was very busy during this time, so Li Yu took leave temporarily, but before leaving, he said: "Don't forget about my patent application, I'll leave this matter to you."
Einstein said for sure: "Don't worry!"
"If I apply for a patent in the future, I will continue to trouble Mr. Li." Li Yu said.
Einstein laughed: "On behalf of the director, I would like to thank you for taking care of business."
Einstein spent a total of 7 years at the Bern Patent Office starting in 1902.
Nowadays, European and American patents only need to be applied for and approved in one country, whether it is the United States, Switzerland or Germany, and there will not be much hindrance to their use.
It’s really interesting to think that there are still many patents that need to be stamped and reviewed by Einstein himself.