Jean Perrin's most well-known achievement may be his discovery of the formula for the distribution of sol particles with height, and his very accurate experimental measurement of Avogadro's constant, which is widely used in high school chemistry and is almost required to be tested, thus completely
It established the molecular motion view of thermodynamics, shattered the "energy theory", and finally crowned atomic theory with a victorious crown.
However, these were all around 1908.
Boltzmann committed suicide in 1906. If he had lived two more years, he would have seen the victory of atomic theory.
Now Jean Perrin has not yet studied Avogadro's constant. The topic he is studying is X-rays.
Li Yu has seen the photos left by Jean Perrin, but they are all of him in old age. Perrin is still a young man who has just passed his thirties, and the gap between him and the photos is not small.
"Are you Professor Peilan?" Li Yu asked.
Peilan stood up from the chair, "Exactly! You must be the legendary Li Yu."
Li Yu smiled and said: "What is not a legend? I am not a legend, I am just a scholar."
Peilan shook hands with him, "What the newspaper said is indeed true, you are so young! I have read the paper you wrote. The analysis of X-rays can be said to be remote and in-depth. I am ready to conduct in-depth research according to the paper.
."
Li Yu rubbed his brows. He did not want Peilan to continue studying rays, because as a latecomer, Li Yu knew that Peilan's real advantage lay in molecular thermodynamics.
As for rays, although Perrin has also made certain achievements, compared with the molecular thermodynamics comparison that won him the Nobel Prize in 1926, it can be pushed back. It will not be too late to do it when he has time in the future.
So Li Yu said: "Professor Peilan, I privately think that now is not the best time to study X-rays. The experimental conditions are not met." Li Yu paused and said, "No, not only the experimental conditions are not met, but also the experimental conditions are not met."
It doesn’t even have experimental theory.”
Peilan was surprised and asked: "Why do you say that?"
"Because atomic theory does not have a deep foundation, only by establishing atomic theory can subsequent X-ray diffraction experiments be possible."
Li Yu's paper is based on pure theory, which is very similar to the work of pure theoretical physicists such as Einstein and Planck. They are not good at doing experiments, but focus on theoretical derivation.
There are still many differences between experimental physicists and theoretical physicists, and Perrin obviously has a deep understanding of experimental physics.
As mentioned before, in this era, physics is in an era led by experimental physicists, and experimental results are derived by theoretical physicists.
However, Li Yu first gave the theory in advance, and later required experimental physicists to conduct experiments.
It is also easy to understand that Einstein's theory of relativity is also purely theoretical physics. It was not until many years later that experiments were conducted one after another, which verified the correctness of the theory of relativity bit by bit.
Perrin thought about it, "Then what should I study?"
"Of course it's the determination of Avogadro's constant." Li Yu blurted out, almost saying that this was the discovery that would win him the Nobel Prize.
"Avogadro's constant?" Perrin asked doubtfully, "If I remember correctly, Mr. Maxwell already determined the result 30 years ago."
Li Yu immediately said: "It's too long! And you should also be able to find that the numerical error is too big. If you want thermodynamics to continue to develop, you must have an accurate numerical value."
Peilan is a smart man, and his research on X-rays is indeed very confusing. When Li Yu said this, he immediately understood: "No wonder the newspaper said that you are not only proficient in the subject of rays, but also proficient in thermodynamics and astronomy. When I saw it today, it turned out that
So. I will definitely start the research project on thermodynamics as soon as possible!"
Li Yu said: "Great! You are a thermodynamics genius. I believe you will succeed!"
In fact, it was Einstein three years later, in 1905, who prompted Perrin to determine Avogadro's constant.
Einstein was extremely eager to know this value because it was of great importance to the theory of heat. Einstein gave the measurement method and formula, but he could not do the experiment at all. He could only long for a genius in experimental physics.
And the genius Einstein longed to emerge from nowhere was naturally Jean Perrin.
Li Yu can only say that he guided Perrin three years in advance, and he sincerely hopes that Mr. Boltzmann can see his theory truly recognized by the world in his lifetime.
Maybe he will stop committing suicide because of this, otherwise the life of this physics master will be really unfortunate.
As soon as they met, he couldn't help but talk about scientific research topics, which also let Perrin know that Li Yu was indeed a real scholar. He turned to the topic and said: "I am here tonight on behalf of the president of the University of Paris to invite you to go to our school tomorrow for a meeting."
Speech, I wonder if sir, you have time?"
Li Yu felt that he was not that famous yet, so he said: "It's not suitable."
Perrin said: "It's just an ordinary academic meeting. You can just talk about your research on rays, thermodynamics and astronomy. You also know that not many people can understand so much now, and everyone is very interested in you, a generalist in physics."
expect."
Li Yu smiled and said: "Don't you also have a math general at the University of Paris?"
Of course Perrin knew who he was referring to: "You mean Professor Poincaré? That's why the school is so interested in a rare all-rounder like you."
Poincaré was the mathematical leader of his day and the last person recognized as having a comprehensive knowledge of mathematics and its applications.
Li Yu was not very good at refusing, so he said: "Okay, in that case, let's give a small-scale speech, don't make it too public, just treat it as an academic seminar."
Perrin said: "Great, we will see you at the University of Paris tomorrow!"
After sending Peilan away, Li Yu didn't want to go back and continue drinking. He didn't like the wine shop. Anyway, he ate about the same. He also tasted the bottle of Remy Martin. He didn't know much about wine and couldn't tell whether it was good or bad.
I drank that glass of wine just because I saw Motoyama’s skit that mentioned Remy Martin being expensive, so I was just a little curious.
Now that I’ve had my share of wine and food, why not find a place to be quiet by yourself and write down the outline of tomorrow’s speech?
You said this was a serious matter. You didn't have any precautions. As soon as you arrived in France, you were going to give a lecture at the University of Paris.
In later generations, the University of Paris has been split, and its name no longer exists, becoming the Sorbonne University and the University of Paris-Cite. However, the University of Paris in the early 20th century was still very strong, with many outstanding people coming out, including 7 Nobel Prize winners.
This does not include Pasteur, the master of microbiology who has passed away. If he had lived a few more years, he would have also been a Nobel Prize winner. By the way, Qian Sanqiang later also studied for a doctorate at the University of Paris.
Li Yu is really a little confused at the moment, maybe he will meet a big boss tomorrow.