Pay attention to the voice of the storm to improve the level of thinking
Guide
Because a great wisdom is what it is, it should not be said that ordinary people can understand it casually.
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Watermelon Video: https://www.ixigua.com/7011411848121713156
This video was released on September 24, 2021 and has reached 95,000 views
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > wonderful reproduction:</h1>
Yuan Lanfeng talked to Cao Zexian in the first and second episodes: "There is no ability to let Chinese children step on the shoulders of giants, we short people must first go up to the top | "Why don't I make science popularization simpler?" Because science is what it is| Science and Technology Yuan Ren》
Episode 3:
Is it enough to get a high score? These are the truths that every teacher should tell to the students
How deep is the water for addition and multiplication? I am afraid that I dare not understand it when I read the doctorate
Chinese children lack the spirit of studying and creating knowledge, what is wrong?
Yuan Lanfeng: Uncle Cao brought a new book of his today called "The Theory of Relativity (Juvenile Edition)". This one came out last year. A few years ago, there was also that "Quantum Mechanics (Juvenile Edition)".
Cao Zexian: Quantum Mechanics (Juvenile Edition).
Yuan Lanfeng: At that time, Du Jun and the editor of HKUST Publishing House gave me this book. And then my first impression was: Huh? This book is too difficult, and when you turn it over, it is all partial differential equations. I said would anyone really buy this book? Can they understand it? As a result, Du editor told me that the book was sold out. There are a lot of people who buy this book. I very much doubt that they treated the book as hawking's A Brief History of Time, and although they didn't understand it, they put it on the shelf to show that they loved science.
Cao Zexian: This place just happens to see you mention Hawking's "A Brief History of Time", and then mention that I wrote this "Quantum Mechanics (Juvenile Edition)" and "Relativity (Juvenile Edition)", so it should be said that my approach is completely opposite to his approach. It's Hawking, he should be a three-piece set, in addition to this one "A Brief History of Time", here is a copy of "The Universe in the Fruit Shell".
Yuan Lanfeng: Yes.
Cao Zexian: And then there was a book called "Big Design."
Yuan Lanfeng: "Big Design", yes.
Cao Zexian: This so-called three-volume book, then their point is that every additional equation is ...
Yuan Lanfeng: Cut the readership in half.
Cao Zexian: Then there is not an equation in the book. My idea is that I never believe that things like relativity and quantum mechanics can be explained without equations, because without equations then there are no such things, and there is no such knowledge. So what I want to do has always been to let people know what quantum mechanics, relativity itself, is what it is, and it looks like that. You understand and don't understand this thing, it looks like that.
I and their set, Hawking's set of ideas is completely opposite, because I want to show you, that is, our theory of relativity, quantum mechanics itself is like, so my "Theory of Relativity (Juvenile Edition)" should be said to be deeper than the general graduate textbook, but...
Yuan Lanfeng: This is called the juvenile version.
Cao Zexian: It's a little deeper than the average graduate textbook, but I believe that our middle school students, our college students, read at different levels, you have your gains, but I think what I think is that if I, as a book like this, if you can provide the whole intellectual history of relativity and all the key documents, and draw the images clearly, then it is there, it is just waiting for something? Wait for a talented or willing student to learn him, wait for a teacher who is willing to teach other people's children to learn, to teach him to understand, because his material is there.
Yuan Lanfeng: Yes, this is your problem, you should understand what it really is.
Cao Zexian: So from the point of view of understanding, I think this, you and I are not a child prodigy, such a theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, that is, when you first came into contact, or when someone taught you again, you did not understand, I think this is simply too normal.
Cao Zexian: But you can't say that I taught you that it's not like this, so I think everyone should have a correct understanding of it. That is to say, what our children learn, I think should be like this, that is, he must know what it looks like, when he can understand, this matter let's take it slowly.
Yuan Lanfeng: Yes, you should understand the true face of this thing.
Cao Zexian: What does it look like, I think this is the right choice.
Yuan Lanfeng: What impressed me very deeply was that I saw an answer on Zhihu, that question, which was to ask Chen Jingrun how to prove Goldbach's conjecture of "1 + 2".
Yuan Lanfeng: Then there was a person who looked like he should be a mathematics major, and then he said, but I still can't explain to you what it is, because a great wisdom, it is like that, it should not be said that ordinary people can understand it casually.
Cao Zexian: Especially if it cannot be expressed as a literary description, saying that Chen Jingrun proved that 1 + 1 = 2 is a misunderstanding that our society has formed for a long time.
Yuan Lanfeng: This is completely chaotic.
Cao Zexian: And where does this misunderstanding come from? It's from...
Yuan Lanfeng: Xu Chi's...
Cao Zexian: Xu Chi's report, "Goldbach Conjecture." So what about that report, reportage, you remember that it is not called popular science, it is called reportage, it is actually an introduction to a person's advanced deeds, and it is published in the newspaper.
Yuan Lanfeng: That's actually quite well written, but it's still impossible to see this...
Cao Zexian: So the problem is that as a literary work, as an introduction to a person's advanced deeds, he is definitely a good work. But conversely, if we look at it from the introduction to a scientist and the work of a scientist, it is very unqualified.
Yuan Lanfeng: Yes, there is also the twin prime number conjecture.
Cao Zexian: Yes, twin prime conjecture. This can be explained to you in one sentence, but quite a few people do not know where his proof is difficult. In fact, it is not right, that is, that is, in fact, the more simple it is described, the more it cannot be proved. For example, let's say that the simplest problem is that a certain man leaves work today, when he leaves work, he honestly goes home, his wife says how he came home two days late, two minutes late home said let him explain, it is precisely you who are honestly on the way home from work Nothing happened, you explain these two minutes why you came back late, you will find that there is no way to explain, right? In fact, mathematics may not be an appropriate metaphor for me, mathematics is exactly like this.
Yuan Lanfeng: Hahahahaha!
Cao Zexian: The more a big sentence, the more I can tell you clearly what the problem is, the more layman can't understand, why is it so difficult to prove this thing?
Yuan Lanfeng: I see a professional explanation for this Goldbach conjecture is to say that the algorithm that we usually use for prime numbers is multiplication.
Cao Zexian: Prime number, prime number.
Yuan Lanfeng: But Goldbach conjecture prefers to use addition, which was originally due to the structure of multiplication, and it is very strange that you are now using addition to it. This is to show that there is a very subtle connection between multiplication and addition. But this contact us is not clear now.
Cao Zexian: So it's right here, because the most basic of algebra is addition and multiplication. So when we talk about prime numbers, the definition of the prime number is only defined from the perspective of multiplication, so there is a saying that prime numbers are called the atomic numbers. So prime numbers multiply to form other numbers, which is a bit similar to your chemistry, that is, diatomic molecules, polyatomic molecules and single-atom molecules, right? So now it is said, translated into the theory, that non-prime numbers should be expressed as the sum of two prime numbers, is not this statement.
Yuan Lanfeng: Well, it means that any even number greater than or equal to 4 can be expressed as the sum of two prime numbers.
Cao Zexian: Well, even numbers can be expressed. So what Chen Jingrun can prove is that it can always be expressed as the sum of the products of one prime number plus two prime numbers...
Yuan Lanfeng: Right.
Cao Zexian: When you look at this place, many people don't understand, just this step here and just now to prove how far that step can be, right? You see just mentioned this step and it also has multiplication, which is Mr. Chen Jingrun's proof, a place that is still far from the final proof. This thing, you mean, if you are not on prime numbers, on algebras, on addition and multiplication itself what is the difference? That is to say, if you don't have these feelings, you don't know what people are busy with, and you don't know where the difficulty of people being busy is.
Cao Zexian: So these things are said to be overcome, right? So this also requires that on the one hand, from the perspective of scientists, I start from the perspective of learning itself to overcome, on the other hand, it also requires those who are really interested, can you learn a little bit of foundation yourself, right? It's the two sides that want to be in agreement with each other.
Yuan Lanfeng: Going in opposite directions is what the Foreign Ministry often says.
Cao Zexian: Moving in the same direction, each other is right or wrong, this is the so-called science popularization. Another point mentioned here is that we have taught too little knowledge, that is, there is a very strange error phenomenon, that is, a considerable number of us who are generally studying for a master's degree and a doctorate will mistakenly think that they know addition and multiplication.
Yuan Lanfeng: Hahaha!
Cao Zexian: Oh my God, addition and multiplication, you dare to say you understand, how deep is the water here?
Yuan Lanfeng: Yes, you wrote an article specifically to explain this problem of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. ("Boy, going to college, huh?") Learning points plus minus multiplication and division 丨 Cao Zexian))
Cao Zexian: Yes, that's to write a little bit. Let's say we just multiply, that is, you want to be glassman, and then grassman's book casually lists 16 kinds of multiplication, and then directly do it. And we, our teachers, can rarely teach us to say multiplication, multiplication and multiplication other than 3 × 5 = 15? He didn't know that there was more multiplication. What I mean is that, on the other hand, if we don't talk about popular science and return to serious education, can our education no longer take the specific amount of learning of this classmate as the ultimate goal, and when we ensure that this child learns a certain degree of things, can we tell him a little more? Yes, it is not required that he learn, but that he knows the matter.
Yuan Lanfeng: You must know what the sky outside the sky looks like.
Cao Zexian: Yes, in the future, he may be able to improve himself step by step. If there are some things like us that many people mistakenly think that addition and multiplication are the multiplications we learned in the first grade of elementary school, this is called the four operations, and there are so many operations. This matter, your education level is very difficult to go up.
Yuan Lanfeng: If a college student does not have a high level of teachers around him, and then he finds that he can surpass his teachers effortlessly and easily, he feels that there is not much in this subject.
Cao Zexian: He thought there was not much in this discipline.
Yuan Lanfeng: Then he won't work hard here anymore, he will look down on the whole scientific world. But if his teacher himself is very hard...
Cao Zexian: The level is also high.
Yuan Lanfeng: He also has a very high status in the field, and then he sees the example of the teacher, and he continues to climb in this world.
Cao Zexian: Yes, this place I am particularly reminded of our classical mechanics, that is, the theoretical mechanics just mentioned. The final final end of theoretical mechanics should be of a high level, and the highest should be implemented in the Jacobian of the so-called Hamiltonian-Jacobian equation. If you look at Jacques biking when he was about 20 years old, he took the works of classical mechanics Lagrange, and then he said I want to study rational mechanics, that is, theory, and I don't know when we will translate it into theoretical mechanics. OK, rational mechanics. Then Jacobi wrote a particularly emotional letter to his uncle.
Yuan Lanfeng: Hmm, who is his uncle?
Cao Zexian: I don't remember clearly now, that is, he went to school, and outside, it may be that his uncle funded him to go to school. He wrote a letter to his uncle and said what? Saying that I am going to decide to study theoretical mechanics, saying that this theoretical mechanics is too broad and profound, I may not have time to do anything else in my life.
Yuan Lanfeng: Wow, I have this realization at the age of twenty.
Cao Zexian: Including marriage. Let's just say that I have decided to study theoretical mechanics now, uncle, I may not have time to do anything else in my life, and I will not have time to get married. Then when I read this letter, I thought back to how we felt when we studied theoretical mechanics. It's just that, in addition to talking about the fear of failing the final exam...
Yuan Lanfeng: Hahahaha!
Cao Zexian: That is to say, the beauty of learning, the appreciation of learning, the joy of harvesting, and the admiration for those who create this knowledge, you say that these are nothing.
Cao Zexian: And then what kind of education is this? So what do I most want to say in turn? In fact, I sometimes joke about it, that is, to make an excuse for my lack of level. Objectively speaking, the level of the teachers we meet is really too poor, then on the other hand, it means that there is such a realization, and on the other hand, as a teacher, I always think that I am unqualified.
Yuan Lanfeng: It is also a good thing that each generation can move forward a little bit, we have to have this long-term...
Cao Zexian: We have to have this kind of consciousness, first, we have to admit our own shortcomings, and then the second has that kind of self-consciousness of moving forward, which is to say that it is quite like Hu Shi said that if you have a point of progress, you have a point of joy, but you can't just say that you feel that you are great, and even think that there is so much learning, which is the most terrible. I really want to give our teacher friends, we said, I remember I was a national middle school teacher training, maybe I said something a little big, there is a teacher friend, equivalent to may be, think I am talking a little harsh bar, or how, and then he asked a question. He said you say so much, then what kind of teacher do you tell me to be a good teacher?
Yuan Lanfeng: This is indeed a very interesting question.
Cao Zexian: This is a very good question, and I said that this question is a very good answer. It's what kind of teacher you want to meet, what kind of teacher you want to meet, what kind of teacher you want to meet, then what kind of teacher you want to be.
Yuan Lanfeng: Although we can't aspire to it, this Confucius has already told us.
Cao Zexian: Yes, I mean, when we talk about what we are talking about, we have been evaluating excellent teachers every year since we entered the country, we don't put these things aside, excellent teachers will have all kinds of rules and regulations, in fact, according to what I think, my box is so simple, that is, do you like this teacher? Do you want to meet other people's teachers, and then your children go to school, do you think it is enough to meet such a teacher? If yes, meet these two points, that is, a good teacher.
Yuan Lanfeng: You successfully threw this ball back to him.
Cao Zexian: But in fact, the specific things that each of us do should be like this.
Yuan Lanfeng: Yes, I think it means that we must have an upward mind, to realize how far our current situation is from that perfect realm, and to continue to work hard towards that realm.
Cao Zexian: Let's talk about Hawking's book, which sold more than 20 million copies around the world many years ago. But in China's spread, I must point out that we have not even translated people's names correctly.
Yuan Lanfeng: Isn't it "A Brief History of Time"?
Cao Zexian: Not "A Brief History of Time", but history is not history, or the word history as such a word from ancient Greece, from Greek, whether it is in Greek, in English, in French, history in a sense, it corresponds to our Chinese should be two or three words, corresponding to our Chinese "history", corresponding to our Chinese "legend", It also corresponds to our Chinese "rap", so that's why we say Homer epic, because Homer's family is Historia, similar to what? Similar to our Chinese, for example, "Fengshen Yanyi". The "Yanyi" of "Fengshen Yanyi", you see the translation as History is just right. So what does that mean? That is to say, The History is in English, in French, in French l'histoire or Greek, and it actually corresponds to our Chinese which means quite a lot. Then the Germans noticed this distinction, so in German he expressed the word hisstory as Historie, but corresponding to the word we Chinese history, the Germans would use Geschichte, that is, it is the coexistence of the words Historie and Geschichte.
So the meaning of Hawking's book, "A Brief History of Time", actually says, it is the right meaning to say, I will give you a brief chat about the concept of time, or about the science of time, not a brief history of time. This has created a kind of, you see, such a book, which was originally a very good kind of popular science book, after such a misnamed translation, and then caused some, in fact, do not understand these studies, not too much understanding, and then take this opportunity to make a certain sense of academic research, where to study the history of time, have you heard of a special seminar, (study) the history of time? Then say where the history of time comes from, how time should have history, and then have a discussion there. You see this is a typical problem in our science popularization process.
Yuan Lanfeng: I think that even if you think of it as the history of time, then you will think that this word is a bit contradictory, but it is very interesting, it will be very literary, and then you will be more interested in reading this book, right? Then achieve this goal and recruit people to see.
Cao Zexian: But your interest in the wrong sense, and your understanding of the wrong meaning, what did you spend all this time there?
Yuan Lanfeng: This is a bit like an ancient story called "raising a candle". That is to say, when you write a letter, you originally meant that he told the person next to him to raise the candle a little higher, but he accidentally wrote this sentence into it. And then you look, why mention raising a candle? He thought, this makes me feel wise, right? Forge a trail of words. Then he thinks your suggestion is very good, crooked, and finally you will find that this meaning is also good.
Cao Zexian: Unintentionally inserting willows, yes, and then maybe there was a history of time, such a philosophy, OK, I also obeyed.
Yuan Lanfeng: So no matter what his original intention is, he understands it in this way, and it will be wrong to be wrong, but it will increase its spread, which is good in this sense.
Cao Zexian: But what was spread, we have to answer.
Yuan Lanfeng: According to what you just said, it's a bit like an epic about time, right? Or rap about time...
Cao Zexian: No, it's actually a narrative about time, or I'll talk to you about history, talk about time.
Yuan Lanfeng: That's "A Brief Discussion On Time."
曹则贤：对，《A Brief Discussion On Time》。
Yuan Lanfeng: But there is nothing literary about it.
Cao Zexian: Yes, there is no literature, but Westerners don't get mixed, you know? Westerners who watch A Brief History of Time will be very clear. He's not looking at the history of time, he's talking to me about the idea of time. But we have caused a big misunderstanding in Chinese, which is what we want to emphasize in particular, that is, it is not an easy thing for you to see this popular science.
Yuan Lanfeng: It's quite difficult.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="106" > Extended reading:</h1>
Do you think you know how to add, subtract, multiply, | and divide? Yuan Lanfeng
There is no ability for Chinese children to step on the shoulders of giants, and we short people must first go up to | Technology Yuan Ren
Why don't I make science simple? Because science is what it is| Technology Yuan Ren
What is relativity 丨 Cao Zexian
Teenager, going to college, right? Learn points to add, subtract, multiply, and divide 丨 back to simplicity
Wai'er: The mathematician elephant who broke into the physical porcelain shop 丨 Cao Zexian
What should Schrödinger's equations look like? 丨 Cao Zexian
Cao Zexian's New Year's Eve Speech: What is Quantum Mechanics? | Cao Zexian
When I found out that the physical god was the uncle of the neighboring village, | Cao Zexian
Background: Yuan Lanfeng, Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Associate Researcher of Hefei National Research Center for Microscale Physical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology Communication, Deputy Director of the Research Center for Science Communication, Chinese Academy of Sciences, President of the Society of Science and Technology and Strategic Wind and Cloud, Keynote Speaker of the "Science and Technology Yuan Ren" Program, Standing Committee Member of Anhui Science and Technology Association, Standing Director of China Youth New Media Association, Director of China Science Writers Association, Selected as "Dianzan 2018 Science Popularization China" Top 10 science communication figures, Weibo @ Zhongke Dahu does not return, Zhihu @ Yuan Lanfeng (https://www.zhihu.com/people/yuan-lan-feng-8).
Editor-in-Charge: Zhu Yang