Chapter 58 The Eve of Defense
The time came to June 15th, and there were only 5 days left before Li Qiwei’s graduation defense date.
He appeared as the finale and was scheduled to be the last one to defend. At the end of June, there would be the graduation ceremony and degree awarding ceremony of the college.
In the office of the Dean of Trinity College, Sanders, Professor Case, and Li Qiwei were chatting and laughing.
Sanders was radiant, leaning back comfortably in his seat, and smiled: "Bruce, Professor Case spoke very highly of your graduation thesis."
"No surprise, this year's graduation defense should become a symbol of Trinity College."
"At that time, let those arrogant Oxford guys see who is the number one university in the UK , Hahaha."
Li Qiwei said in his heart, "Good guy, an ordinary graduation defense was used by Sanders to show off."
Professor Case also echoed: "Bruce, I read your paper three times. It is really well written."
"The most important thing is that you put the entire light The research and historical explanation are very clear, especially the final conclusion, which is really amazing. ”
"I can't wait to see your defense presentation. Let me tell you secretly, I have also prepared a few questions."
Li Qiwei smiled, but his expression was calm. He had been numbed by the praise. The threshold that can make his mood fluctuate is too high now.
"Professor Case, you are exaggerating, because I personally think it is time to draw a conclusion on the nature of light."
"Let me end this debate."
The simple but domineering words shocked Professor Case, with admiration in his eyes.
The battle between waves and particles of light has been going on for hundreds of years, and there has been no final decision yet. Now Li Qiwei has made such a bold statement.
Sometimes Professor Case wonders if his obscurity in the physics community is related to being too honest.
At this time, Sanders then smiled and said: "Okay, two physics experts, let's stop discussing academics. I don't understand either. This feels terrible." Ridgway and Case The professor chuckled.
“Let’s talk about the specific defense arrangements, so that Bruce can prepare for the next step.”
“According to my estimate, the people who will participate in the defense should be from other schools. There are about 50 people, and there are about 200 people in our school.”
"When the time comes, we will use the largest lecture theater in Trinity College, equipped with a loudspeaker."
"But Bruce, I want to remind you that the audience this time is mostly students, and there may be People who are not physics majors ask questions.”
“You have to be mentally prepared. If you don’t know the answer, you can politely refuse.”
Li Qiwei nodded superficially, but was dismissive in his heart. As long as it was a question related to his graduation thesis, he didn't think there was anything he couldn't answer.
Then, the three discussed the details and confirmed that the various processes were accurate.
The next day, when Ridgway was working in the laboratory, Wilson hurried in and interrupted him, "Bruce, come and see, your photoelectric effect has been proven experimentally."
Whoosh!
Li Qiwei immediately stood up, took the magazine from Wilson's hand, and found that it turned out to be "Science", which is "Science" in Chinese.
In later generations, these were the two highest academic journals on par with Nature.
Science magazine was founded by Edison in 1880 and became the most famous scientific journal in the United States in 1894.
Like "Nature", "Science" is also a weekly magazine, which mainly publishes the best original research papers, reviews, and some short messages.
The so-called short message is not a complete paper, but reports information such as the purpose and results of the experiment.
Now, the home page of the latest issue of the magazine is an experimental short message about the photoelectric effect. Li Qiwei discovered that the author turned out to be Millikan. It seems that the history in the United States has not changed much. Millikan was the first to experimentally verify the photoelectric effect.
However, it was more than ten years ahead of schedule. I think that my physics assignment has really stimulated many people, and experimental physics also has a bright future!
In this experimental short message, Millikan used six types of monochromatic light with different wavelengths to measure the photocurrent at different voltages.
From the relationship curve between photocurrent and voltage, the voltage of the measured cathode is calculated under the irradiation of light of a certain wavelength.
The voltage obtained from the 6 sets of photocurrent curves, and the curve that changes with the light frequency, Millikan got exactly a beautiful straight line.
He calculated the value of Lie-Planck's constant h based on the slope of this straight line, which is the same as the value of h in the Lie-Planck radiation formula.
This perfectly affirms the photoelectric effect equation and confirms the correctness of the light quantum theory.
Of course, the specific experimental raw data were not released. What Millikan published was a short message, reporting only the most important experimental results.
It can be seen that he wanted to seize the opportunity and was afraid that others would publish it in advance.
It is estimated that "Science" magazine also took the risk and agreed to publish it for the sake of the photoelectric effect.
After all, this is the most cutting-edge physical theory now, and it has a great impact. The magazine even specially invited the reviewers to Millikan's laboratory for face-to-face communication.
Ensure the accuracy of experimental results.
Nowadays, the United States’ ambitions are gradually expanding, and it also wants to increase its influence in the physics community.
In the foreseeable future, there will be fierce confrontation between "Nature" and "Science".
After coming back to his senses, Li Qiwei looked at the magazine with a smile on his lips. Now his position was as stable as Mount Tai.
Wilson looked excited and patted Ridgway's shoulder hard, "Bruce, with these experimental results, no one will object to your quantum theory anymore."
"I I feel that you are very competitive for the first Nobel Prize in Physics.”
Li Qiwei said: "That's not necessarily true. There are too many big names in physics today. Everyone has made great achievements and the competition is too great."
Wilson still believes in Li Qiwei, which is an intuition. "Bruce, I really envy you. You are so young and can create such a great theory. Compared with it, the photoelectric effect is not enough."
Li Qiwei smiled and said: "No, the photoelectric effect In fact, it is also very important. I think it is the basis of a broader theory. "
Wilson didn't understand. Doesn't the photoelectric effect just mean that light also has particle properties? There was a similar conclusion hundreds of years ago. What's so special about it? ?
What he didn’t know was that more than twenty years later, a young man named de Broglie would be inspired by the wave-particle duality of light and publish a paper.
The paper is only a few pages long, but it puts forward for the first time that everything is a wave, that is, any physical particle also has wave-particle duality!
De Broglie won the 1929 Nobel Prize in Physics for this achievement.
Li Qiwei smiled slightly when he thought of this. The wave-particle duality derived from the photoelectric effect is the second foundation of [quantum mechanics].
Quantum theory, wave-particle duality, and uncertainty principle, now he has put forward the first point.
Four days later, during his graduation defense, he will publicly confirm the wave-particle duality of light in preparation for raising the second point.
Thank you all book friends for your monthly votes and recommendation votes, the climax is coming soon. Lao Xu is here to collect and read it.
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(End of this chapter)