Chapter 171 Officer Chen's Reasoning About History

Scientific development has traces to follow, first is basic theory, second is demand, and third is the background of the times.

For example, Zhang Heng of the Eastern Han Dynasty calculated the value of pi to 732/232, because at that time, he only needed to use this theorem to solve all problems. Before that, he used "circumference is 3 times diameter"!

In the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Zu Chongzhi calculated the most accurate value of pi in the world for the next thousand years: 3.1415926, because this period required more accurate basic theories to develop applied sciences.

During this period of war, the popularity of stirrups made the "bow and crossbow defeat cavalry" tactics originated from the Han Dynasty useless, and iron armor became the standard for cavalry.

Iron-clad knights were ancient tanks, and ancient machine guns such as Zhuge Liannu could not penetrate them, and the armor-piercing effect of long halberds was not ideal.

Therefore, whether it is equipment, materials, tactics, iron smelting and technology, they have been improved under the drive of survival.

In order to upgrade the basic theory, the dynasty must support basic theorists to conduct full-time research, and even the most unrealistic "Astronomy" is for agricultural services.

Speaking of the West, the United Kingdom gave birth to Newton, a scientist who was a physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher and alchemist. It was also because the basic theory restricted the applied science that England increased the funding for Cambridge University to cultivate full-time scholars to solve the technology needed for navigation.

Look at "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", "Newtonian Mechanics", "Universal Gravitation", "Differential and Integral Calculus", and "Classical Optics". Which one is not applied in the applied science of navigation colonization and mechanical manufacturing at that time?

Well, let's review the Archimedean principle of ancient Greece: F buoyancy = ρ fluid × g × V displaced fluid. This theory was invented just to test whether the craftsmen used silver to cut corners without cutting open the pure gold crown!

This is like Einstein's calculation of the mass-energy equation to see if Newton would explode.

For example, Mr. Diophantus in the 3rd century AD left the "Diophantine Problem" on his epitaph that the modern mathematical community has not been able to solve. There are still a lot of theories related to Diophantine equations, such as Pei Shu's equation, integer solutions to the Pythagorean theorem, Pell's equation, the four-squares theorem, and Fermat's last theorem.

However, Diophantus' tombstone has not been found so far. Why did a European publication in 1621 claim to have found the so-called mathematical puzzle of Metrodorus in the 5th century AD, and the title included the so-called "Epitaph of Diophantus" in the 3rd century AD! ?

Obviously, the "ancient Greek academics" that emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries invented the ancient background for the sake of popularity, and those theories were actually created during that period!

In addition, the so-called evidence in Europe is logically inconsistent. For example, before the 6th century AD, only China produced silk, and the so-called "Homer's Odyssey" described silk as: "From the threshold to the inner room, soft silk was placed on the chair."

The silk here is the beautiful silk, which simply made countless Greeks bow down, and the place of origin was called "Seres" - the country of silk.

However, the archaeological team will find silk fragments about 5,500 years old at the Qingtai site in Xingyang the following year (1998), and even 37 years ago, silk artifacts dating back to 3,700 BC were found.

That is to say, 2,700 years before the birth of ancient Greek civilization, China had already invented silk! If ancient Greece was really so advanced, why would it marvel at the beauty of silk?

Such advanced ancient Greece could not produce it before its demise, and was shocked like a country bumpkin!

"Shocked! The Greeks, who were leading the world in science and mathematics for 2,000 years, were obsessed with silk! It's like we, 2,000 years later, already know how to make computers, but we are amazed at the 'counting' invented in the Warring States Period, and we are obsessed with it even though we still can't make 'counting'.

The only possibility is that many mathematical achievements were attributed to the ancient Greeks.

During the Age of Exploration, some famous theories were transferred to the ancient Greeks, and then the floating body principle was used to measure the gold content of the crown. Such a ridiculous reason, I am more inclined to believe that the floating body principle was the basic academic knowledge used for sailing ship manufacturing in the Age of Exploration."

As Chen Bin continued to draw out unreasonable evidence, Catalina's three views were refreshed again and again, and she no longer believed in the popular science knowledge she had read in her childhood.

After Chen Bin finished complaining, Li Xiuhui refilled the cup of tea and continued the unfinished story.