Chapter 81: Mathematics and Physics Advanced Course

About a year has passed since Ma Shao created the Apache script.

During this year, he taught hundreds of students. The teaching content was extremely simple, basically elementary school content, but the teaching pressure was unprecedentedly huge.

Giving lectures to a group of people from the Stone Age, the students' weak foundation and the difficulty in communication were things he had never seen in his previous life, let alone imagined.

In addition, the students' ages and progress levels are uneven, and fortunately Ma Shao is a professional teacher, otherwise I probably wouldn't be able to last even a month.

But all things are difficult at the beginning. After persevering through this most difficult beginning, the situation finally gradually improved.

Ma Shao basically no longer needs to worry about the courses for lower grades and literacy classes, as there are several outstanding graduates who can take over the teaching work for him.

Now the senior class has finally welcomed its first batch of graduates, with only five people in total: Rainy Day, Long Stick, Wind, Prairie Wolf, and Rat Hunting.

They were undoubtedly gifted. After a year of study at most, they had reached a level of mathematics equivalent to that of upper elementary school students in later generations, and were able to easily solve a system of linear equations with two variables.

Being able to solve a system of linear equations with two variables is already quite impressive. In the current Indian mathematics community, even if he is not the Doudi Emperor, he can be called the Doudi Saint.

Not to mention the Indians, even in later generations, some celebrities are still using this to establish their image as academic masters.

Ma Shao's most important indicator for measuring the knowledge level of senior students is mathematics performance.

The next subject for these five graduates to study is also mathematics and physics, which Ma Shao calls the "mathematics and physics advanced training class." In this advanced training class, he will teach the compressed high school science knowledge to five people, mainly junior high school students.

As for high school knowledge, there is no need to teach it all, especially the highly test-oriented content, which most people will forget soon after leaving school.

From then on, Ma Shao's main teaching job was to give special lessons to these five people in the Chief's Hall. The teaching of senior grades was handed over to these five people, which made things a lot easier.

Today's lesson content is mainly about geometric axioms.

"...The geometry I'm talking about comes from ancient Greece two thousand years ago. The Elements of Geometry, which explains this knowledge, is the model and ancestor of all scientific knowledge in later generations. In the following studies, you will gradually understand the great 'axiomatic thinking' and the source of the white man's power..."

Ma Shao told the story to the five people.

As a centurion in the army, Prairie Wolf has a temperament of not admitting defeat. He couldn't help but ask his own question: "Teacher, I can't understand why science was first mastered by white people, and it was two thousand years ago?"

"Yeah, is it true that they are a superior race as some white people say?" Rat Hunter also sighed. His sigh sounded very naive, but it was considered profound among the Indians, many of whom had not even realized the fact that the white people were powerful.

"Of course it's not because white people are superior." Ma Shao blurted out.

The Mouse Hunter asked, "Then why did they invent science?"

"Because of the ocean and commerce," Ma Shao said. "Water transport is the cheapest form of transportation. Places with developed water transport can not only exchange goods at a lower cost, but also exchange knowledge at a lower cost."

"If we want to send a book to Navajo, we may need to consume a cart of hay and a large bag of dried meat on the way; but if Athens wants to send a book to Crete, maybe only a bag of bread is enough..."

Several people seemed to be thinking about it, but they still had questions: "But, ancient Greece is not the only place in the world with developed water transportation, right?"

Ma Shao nodded: "Indeed, but the business in ancient Greece was also very unique."

"What's the difference?"

"The environment in ancient Greece was not suitable for agriculture, so they often needed to import food from outside - in other words, no force could stop them from opening up to the outside world and developing business. Business and openness were a survival need for them," said Ma Shao.

"In contrast, in places that are self-sufficient, commerce becomes insignificant... If a place is not only self-sufficient but also has a government that knows how to protect farmers, the situation of merchants is even more humble."

"Moreover, Europe is not far from the Mesopotamian civilization and ancient Egypt. In fact, ancient Greek civilization is the common child of the Mesopotamian civilization and ancient Egyptian civilization. Europe itself is home to many countries, and foreign cultures are rich and diverse. This is also an important reason."

There was silence for a moment.

"Why are we so backward?" The Wind asked, "I feel like we are the most backward civilization in the world."

"Be more confident and remove the 'I feel'." Ma Shao joked. But what he said was basically true. Even compared with Africa, Indian civilization is still backward.

"…" The wind fell silent.

Ma Shao thought this was a good joke, but he didn't expect that no one in the room laughed. He felt a little embarrassed. "Well... the reasons why we are backward are very complicated, such as the isolation of the American continent, such as... Actually, I haven't thought it through yet. When I think it through, I will slowly tell you."

He had actually thought it through a long time ago.

In the first year of his rebirth, he repeatedly searched through his memories of "Guns, Germs, and Steel" in his previous life in the real Indian society and thought through many issues, including the reasons for the backwardness of the Indians.

But it is difficult to explain it clearly at the moment, and Ma Shao feels that he should write a book.

The name of the book is still "Guns, Germs, and Steel" and the content is roughly similar. The biggest difference is the author, an Indian.

"Okay, that's all for today's class. Remember to finish your homework."

Except for Ma Shao and Rainy Day, the other four left the Chief's Hall one after another.

The two of them will continue their teacher-student activities here, but their positions are reversed, with Rainy Day being the teacher and Ma Shao being the student, and the main content of teaching will be the languages ​​and history of various Indian tribes.

When the rainy days came, Ma Shao no longer looked for the long-haired Komanchi.

After all, Rainy Day was fluent not only in Comanche but also in seven other Indian languages ​​and a dozen lesser-known Indian languages, making him a sort of all-around Indian interpreter.

The lesson continued until a warrior came in to report: "Great Chief, another clan is coming!"

Ma Shao and Xia Yutian immediately got up and went out to greet them, and then they saw a group of men, women, old and young riding horses towards them in the distance, carrying all kinds of miscellaneous items.

They naturally responded to the order of the great chief and moved to the clan of Sleeping Bear.

Because of the Arapaho Battle, Ma Shao already had a very high prestige, and now he was the great chief, so these clans were more willing to obey him.

Of course, what is more important is that Ma Shao told them that building a city can bring more food, clothing, and better defense against foreign enemies.

After Mianxiong officially changed its tribe into a city, this was the third clan to move in, and it was estimated that there were more than a hundred people.

However, when Ma Shao came into contact with this clan, he unexpectedly discovered that they did not belong to the Plains Tribe, and to a certain extent did not even belong to the Apache.

"Are you Navajo?" Ma Shao asked in surprise.

The chief of the clan was an old man. He dismounted and smiled with gaps in his teeth: "Respected Chief Ma Shao, we have heard about your order from our brother clans and we also want to move to sleeping bear City."