Chapter 16 Fudie Demon's Thesis (2)

　　"I haven't found anything wrong with the math, at least so far. A couple of his gadgets are excellent as well." Laplace said, "It's just that explaining light in terms of waves still leaves quite a few phenomena that are difficult to explain, such as what properties the Ether must have in order to transmit fluctuations as fast as light. And he explains light as a transverse wave, so why are there no longitudinal waves in the Ether?"

　　"Ah, my friend, you are asking too many questions, and none of them are going to be difficult anytime soon, or even, I don't think, in our lifetimes, if we can see any hope of answering them." Lavoisier said, "That is indeed a big problem according to Flux. The thing about the Ether, it's so unique, it's almost as incredible as God. It transmits light incredibly fast - I mean, if light is a wave - which means it's very hard, many times harder than diamond I don't know. It fills the entire universe and is so hard, and yet it doesn't create an obstacle to anything in the universe, it doesn't block the movement of even the tiniest speck of dust - in fact, we can't find any resistance from the 'Ether' at all right now. That's a real head-scratcher ... Ah, my friend, I suggest that for the time being we leave the question about that damn 'Ether' alone. We are too far away from it with our present knowledge and means. For us to study it now would be like a freshly weaned calico cat studying how to catch a whale."

　　"Mr. Lavoisier, a whale is not a fish." Laplace laughed.

　　"That I certainly know." Lavoisier laughed too, "But ... but Little Flower Cat he doesn't know that."

　　"Yeah, Kitten he doesn't know." Laplace said, "Actually, aren't we kittens too? We don't know either."

　　"That's why I've always believed that experimentation comes first. All theories, ultimately, have to be tested by experiment, at least his calculations, with which 'Bonaparte's light spot' tested well. As for the 'Ether', or 'Bonaparte's spot', 'double-slit interference', and 'Newton's ring' aren't there there are others, explanations from the particle point of view, then it's up to the others." Lavoisier said, "But even if he's ultimately wrong on this issue, the error itself is valuable."

　　"That I agree with." Laplace said. Then he looked down at the paper and added, "I will come up with a new explanation. But for now, allow me to complete my examination of this thesis. Then together we can take this thesis to Monge, Cullen, and Mr. Condorcet. ..."

　　...

　　At Monge and Cullen, however, the situation changed.

　　"Honestly, those math gadgets in this paper are interesting, and there's some even more interesting stuff behind them. How much better it would have been if this paper had honestly discussed math. It would be a really worthwhile" Monge frowned "But instead he used it to prove such ridiculous points, which is really ..."

　　"If only he'd been willing to revise the paper a bit." Cullen chimed in.

　　"We should make an appointment to talk to him about revising this paper a little more, and then we can give him the prize money." Laplace glanced at Lavoisier and added, "After all, those gadgets alone are actually worth six hundred francs."

　　"It's not the six hundred francs." Monge said, "It's the fact that he would make such a strange claim-that light is actually a wave, and that the Ether that transmits it should have smashed us to pieces long ago! We'd be the butt of jokes if something this ridiculous won a prize! Unless he revises this paper properly some, and removes the unnecessary things, I object to the prize being awarded to him."

　　"I don't think it's rigorous to give out the prize now, after all, it's not really conclusive evidence, I mean, those two experiments, there should be other, better explanations. I think we should be a little more cautious on this one ...," Cullen said.

　　"Come on, Cullen! Don't you have a better explanation? Or have you found a hole in his argument?" Condorcet glared, "It's true that the fluctuation theory has a lot of problems that can't be solved yet, like the one you mentioned about the Ether. But does it mean that there are no problems with the particle theory? Other than that, how does the particle theory explain double-slit interference and 'Bonaparte's spot'? Part of the point of science is to discover the unknown and ask questions. Asking questions, especially valuable questions, is sometimes even more important than drawing conclusions! How many times have we seen old ideas and insights overturned since the birth of science, but can we say that those now overturned ideas and insights are worthless? Even if the ideas in this paper are ultimately proven to be complete fallacies, and even if tomorrow morning you, Cullen, come up with a new explanation that completely overthrows his insights, doesn't that fallacy in itself inspire thought and reveal the truth? So even if it is a fallacy, it has value. What is more, it is not necessarily a fallacy! --Is Sir Isaac Newton not to be doubted? Is this still the spirit of science! It would be a disgrace to the Academy if a paper of this kind could not be honored!"

　　In terms of eloquence, there were really not many people in the Academy of Sciences who could compare to Condorcet, and Cullen was naturally no exception. Knowing that he couldn't debate with Kong Dosai, Cullen simply closed his mouth and said nothing.

　　Seeing that Cullen didn't speak anymore, Condorcet then turned to Meng Ri again, "Meng Ri, what do you think?"

　　Meng Ri's status in the Academy of Sciences was less influential than Condorcet's, and his language skills were far inferior. However, Monge was a very stubborn person, and when he heard Condorcet's question, he replied, "I can't agree to give him the merit award until I talk to him face to face."

　　Then he closed his mouth and said nothing. Condorcet also knew Monge's character and knew that this was the biggest concession he could make, so he said nothing more, but turned to Laplace again, "Laplace, what about you? What do you think?"

　　Laplace looked at Condorcet, then at Monge and Cullen, and then said, "I think ... that just with those few math tools, this paper can get a merit award ... but I also think that there are still places where he isn't rigorous enough. I also think we should invite him to talk."

　　Condorcet looked at Laplace and couldn't help but shake his head. There was no doubt about Laplace's talent, but his character was really a bit weak and fickle.

　　"So be it, we'll ask this Mr. Bonaparte to come here. We'll talk to him, and then, let's give him the merit award." Condorcet said, and after a slight pause, he added, "Does anyone else of you think that someone who can write a paper like this isn't qualified enough for such an award?"

　　Everyone was silent. Condorcet looked around, then said, "Very well, then."

　　...

　　Although the Academy of Sciences was located in the city of Paris, the efficiency of the postal service in this era was quite low, and it wasn't until three days later that Joseph received this invitation. But in fact, two days ago he got this news from Amand.

　　Now since he got the invitation, Joseph did a little preparation, then took the invitation, changed into a formal dress that he may not wear once a year, took a public carriage, (this is mainly to avoid too much dust on his leather shoes) and went in the direction of the Louvre.

　　Located on the north bank of the Seine, the Louvre was built in the twelfth century and is one of the oldest royal palaces in France. When Louis XIII, Richelieu founded the Royal Academy of Sciences, the institution was placed in the Louvre. During the latter part of Louis XIV's reign, there were frequent riots in the city of Paris. Louis XIV enlarged the Palace of Versailles outside the city and moved there. Since then, the King of France no longer lived in the Louvre, but the Academy of Sciences remained.

　　Arriving at the entrance of the Louvre, Joseph got out of the car, organized some of his clothes, and walked towards the Louvre's gate. This wasn't Joseph's first time at the Louvre, in his previous life, as a tourist, Joseph had also visited here before. At that time, the Louvre was one of the four major museums in the world, collecting all kinds of precious cultural relics. The Louvre at this time, on the other hand, was just a palace, and of the famous three treasures of the Louvre in later life, only the Mona Lisa was collected in it today.

　　Joseph walked to the palace's gate - in later times, the Louvre's gate was that post-modern style glass pyramid. At this time, however, such a thing still did not exist. The gates of the Louvre were still regular, ordinary gates.

　　Joseph walked up to the door and showed the janitor his invitation. The janitor put on his old-fashioned glasses, lowered his head to look at the invitation, and didn't raise his head, but only glanced at Joseph from the slit above the glasses frame, then said, "Mr. Bonaparte, please wait here for a little while. I need to verify the situation."

　　Joseph nodded and waited outside the door for a little while before seeing a waiter in a red jacket and wig walk over, open the door and say to Joseph, "Is it Mr. Bonaparte? Please follow me."

　　Joseph then followed this attendant into the Louvre. The attendant led Joseph through hall after hall, and finally he stopped in front of a small parlor.

　　"Monsieur Bonaparte," the attendant said as he turned to Joseph and bowed, "Monsieur Condorcet, Monsieur Lavoisier and the others are waiting for you inside."

　　With these words, he pulled open the door of the calfskin-wrapped room and signaled that Joseph could walk in on his own.

　　Joseph then walked in, and as soon as he did, he saw that there were already three men sitting in the room. When those three men saw Joseph walk in, they stood up as well, and one of them, a middle-aged man who was thinner and had a very high forehead, said, "It's Mr. Joseph Bonaparte, isn't it? I am Lavoisier. This is a member of the Academy of Sciences, my friend Mr. Condorcet, and this is my friend Laplace."

　　Joseph then greeted the men one by one. Condorcet was a little stouter than Lavoisier, and his face was a little wider. He smiled gently toward Joseph and seemed to have a gentler disposition. The other one, who was a little younger and slightly hawkish, was Laplace, the mathematician who had once given Joseph a run for his money in a previous life.