China has "three coins", namely Qian Sanqiang, the father of China's atomic bomb, Qian Xuesen, the "father of China's aerospace", "the father of China's missiles", and Qian Weichang, the "father of modern Chinese mechanics", although these three people were born in 1913, 1911 and 1912, they did not have much relationship or relatives.
Qian Sanqiang was admitted to the science pre-selection of Peking University in 1929 with the support of his father Qian Xuantong, and after graduating from peking university, he was admitted to Tsinghua University, and has always insisted on and loved physics research.
Qian Xuesen is also a famous scholar since childhood, it is said that Qian Xuesen's "college entrance examination" score that year was only a few points worse than the full score, Qian Xuesen was admitted to the Department of Railway Engineering of the Shanghai School of Mechanical Engineering of the Ministry of Railways Jiaotong University in 1929, graduated from the National Jiaotong University in 1934, and was admitted to the seventh Gengjian Liu aesthetics of Tsinghua University in June of the same year.
Qian Weichang is different from the first two, Qian Weichang was also born in the Shuxiang Mendi family, his father is qian Zhi, the eldest brother of the master of traditional Chinese studies Qian Mu, in 1930 Qian Weichang graduated from wuxi no. 1 middle school, and his college entrance examination Chinese and history scores are full scores, but the physics score is only 5 points, mathematics and chemistry scores add up to 20 points, that is to say, Qian Weichang is seriously biased, and is a genius in literature and history.
If Qian Weichang always walks on the road of literature and history, he may also be a master of traditional Chinese studies in the future. According to the admission conditions of major universities at that time, Qian Weichang was admitted to 5 famous universities at the same time: Tsinghua University, Jiaotong University, Zhejiang University, Wuhan University and Central University.
Qian Weichang first studied in the history department of Tsinghua University, and also won the "Qinghan Scholarship" set up by Wu Yunchu, the founder of the mainland chlor-alkali industry, but after the September 18 Incident in 1931, Qian Weichang abandoned the literature and materials in anger, saying that he wanted to learn to build aircraft cannons, so he transferred to the department of physics.
This college entrance examination physics only 5 points of the student to learn physics, but also let many people stunned, but Qian Weichang is not just talking, his determination is very large, but also more than many students studying physics harder, Qian Weichang also left a famous saying: "I have no major, the needs of the motherland is my major." ”。
In 1935, Qian Weichang was admitted to the Institute of Tsinghua University, and also won the Gao Mengdan Scholarship, followed his supervisor Wu Youxun to do spectral analysis, and studied solution theory under the guidance of Huang Ziqing (who received a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1935 and devoted his life to research and teaching physical chemistry).
In January 1940, Qian Weichang was admitted as a publicly-funded international student of the Sino-British Genghui Association, but because of the outbreak of World War II, Qian Weichang went to the University of Toronto in Canada to study, focusing on elastic mechanics, and later spent 50 days to complete the paper "The Inner Theory of Elastic Plate Shell".
Two years later, Qian Weichang received a doctorate in applied mathematics from the University of Toronto, and from 1942 to 1946, Qian Weichang engaged in postdoctoral scientific research at the Institute of Jet Propulsion of the California Institute of Technology, under the tutelage of von Carmen, the father of the world's missiles, and published the world's first theory of singular perturbation.
In 1946, Qian Weichang resolutely chose to return to China and made great contributions to the motherland, Qian Weichang participated in the creation of the Department of Mechanics of Peking University, which was also the first mechanics major in mainland Universities.
It is also worth saying that in 1937, Qian Weichang, who was less than one meter and seven sons, was also selected for the Chinese national football team and won the championship at the Far East Games in the Philippines.