516 Suppor (1/2)
Lucien could feel his teacher's complex feelings. He handed his papers over and said, ”There's nothing subversive in it. It's just trying to explain Mr. Douglas's experiment on light speed and the related correlation. It shares some similarities with the previous assumptions put forward by several arcanists.”
Lorentz Transformation. That was what Lucien prepared for his teacher to get him mentally prepared.
Fernando still felt quite suspicious, but he took the paper anyway and started reading. As he read further, the look on Fernando's face changed greatly.
Lucien could not help asking, ”Sir, is it alright?”
Fernando grinned, ”This is the second time this month that I read something like this.”
Lucien was a bit surprised, ”Someone submitted a similar paper already? But, I didn't find anything similar when I searched among the files in Arcana Review Board. I wouldn't bring it to you if I knew…”
Fernando temporarily put aside all his questions about fusion and fission and looked more cheerful now then he usually was, ”I know, because he hasn't submitted it yet. He dared not. He brought it to me and asked my personal opinion.”
”Who is he?” asked Lucien curiously. He was actually not too surprised since the data from the light speed experiment had been available for more than three years, and many wave theory supporters were trying to use the data to support their belief. It was not a big leap forward if an arcanist had found something like Lorentz Transformation.
Although the sorcerers in this world were experiencing lots of turnovers because they still had a lot to explore, when it came to sheer thinking, they were good.
”It was Oliver. Three years ago, he had a bet with Florencia, and he started working on it since then. His project was delayed because of the exploration of the new dimension, and he finally finished putting together the whole transformational equation group. His paper's saying that, using Ether as the observer, moving length contraction happens to compensate for the difference in light speed in all directions, which explains Douglas's experiment. I suppose your paper is about the same thing, right?”
Fernando just finished reading the introduction of Lucien's paper. He assumed that Lucien's paper was the same.
Lucien nodded, ”Yes, but why did Mr. Oliver not submit it?”
Although Oliver was studying the Dark Dragon Lord, he should still be able to have his wife, Florencia, or his students submit the paper.
”Because he believed that there were still things, important things, missing, and he couldn't explain why the phenomenon exists. He then got a new direction to go in, but the reasoning couldn't go further. So he was kind of stuck, which was why he came to me.” said Fernando.
”So what's your opinion, sir?” Lucien asked.
Fernando smacked his lips and said, ”I told him that his thinking wasn't clear enough yet. He was still swinging from one side to the other. But I also couldn't help him with explaining the cause of the phenomenon. I told Oliver to find some time to talk to you. You're known for being open-minded and creative, so you probably could help.”
Fernando put on a cunning smile and looked at Lucien, ”I didn't expect that you'd come up with the same explanation, but I remember that you've been ignoring Ether all the time. There's no way that you suddenly decided to use Ether to explain Douglas's experiment. Also, part of the equations, here, the length contraction, is problematic, and I'm sure you know it. So, Lucien, what are you really trying to achieve throwing this paper at me?”
Lucien looked in his teacher's eyes, but did not say anything.
”I think you've dug in further. You are getting us prepared using this paper. You can take it out, your true paper.” said Fernando.
Lucien saw his teacher's red eyes were very sincere and kind. He had to admit that his teacher knew him very well.
But should he just throw the special theory of relativity directly at Fernando?
Seeing that Lucien was still hesitating, Fernando glared at him and said, ”What? You're worrying that I might not be able to take it? Come on. I've already got my lesson from light quantum and energy quantum. There's nothing that can explode my mind anymore. Even during that time, although I did lose control a bit, I'm still here, right? Safe and sound.”
Lucien still remembered clearly how Fernando suffered from the great frustration and fury when this happened last time. But he dared not say.
Weighing his words, Lucien said, ”I think the change in length doesn't come from the contraction of matter, but the contraction of space.”
”Space contraction… Interesting. Maybe we should see space from another perspective… Oliver once mentioned it as well.” Fernando wasn't too surprised because of the existence of space barriers, demiplanes, and space spells.
”If we just put aside Ether here, just based on Mr. Douglas's experiment, classical electromagnetic theory, and the studies on bodies in motion, we can put forward a postulate - the idea that the speed of light is a constant, independent of the relative motion of the source.” Lucien explained further.
Fernando's right hand clenched and tapped his chin, ”I see. If based on that, there'll be lots of things to talk about. You just give me the paper.”
Lucien hurriedly added, ”There's one more precondition - the principle of relativity. There are quite some papers talking about it. You probably have read some of them before.”
Sorcerers often cast sound waves magic spells. A long time ago, they had found that when their enemies approached them quickly, the sound became quick and short; when their enemies fled away from them, the sound was prolonged. The change in sound waves seemed to be closely related to speed. The phenomenon was broadly discussed and therefore introduced the principle of relativity. Meanwhile, some arcanists were also looking at the changes in light waves from stars.
There was another common phenomenon that one could see in daily life to prove this: When a magic steam train approached from afar, the steam whistle would become increasingly sharper; but when it passed the observer, the steam whistle would become deeper.
Fernando nodded slightly, ”Two preconditions only? Good. It's like your style: Start from less axioms and hypotheses, and use more logical reasoning. Give the paper to me. I'm prepared.”
”Sir, why don't you further develop Mr. Oliver's transformational equations on your own based on the two preconditions? You can see the units in the equations from a brand new arcana perspective. In other words, they are no more mere math symbols.”
Fernando was a bit pissed, but he still accepted Lucien's advice, ”Let me see what conclusion you're hiding!”
He walked back to his desk and picked up the quill-pen. He first wrote down the two preconditions, and then started working on the equations.
When he first started, everything went very smoothly. A grand arcanist's knowledge was way more than enough for the initial deduction.
However, as he wrote down further, Fernando's quill-pen stopped above a certain line.
The black ink formed a small drop at the pen point, and then dripped down onto the parchment.
The ink slowly spread out.
The space they were in, Fernando's demiplane, Thunder Hell, suddenly became very stormy. The thundering and lightning were roaring.
Fernando looked up. His red eyes were full of shock.
Lucien did not look away. Instead, he looked right into Fernando's eyes.
Fernando took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Then he started working on the equations again.
As Fernando wrote down more equations and more stage conclusions, certain changes were happening in the study.
Rulers, quill-pens, books were contracting, and the clock was ticking slower and slower.
Lucien closed his eyes and spread out his spiritual power. The changes were real.
However, the changes were so tiny that only a senior-rank or above could notice.
The changes taking place in Fernando's cognitive world was affecting the real world!
That was the power of a legendary sorcerer!
After a while, Fernando finally put down the quill-pen in his hand and looked at the final conclusion attentively. He laughed in a mocking way at himself, ”I thought I'd had a basic idea about the truth of the world, but I was totally wrong. Space and time are in fact very, very different from what we feel. The equation shows that time is actually a function of speed, depending on the matter. If it wasn't my own derivation, I'd definitely yell at you badly.”
Fernando then looked up and said very seriously, ”But this conclusion is based on the single postulate, and we need things more solid than this, although this can be used to explain why part of the starlight saw spectroscopic redshifts.”
Fernando had not fully accepted it yet. The conclusion had to be proved by some further evidence, or it remained a fancy toy.
”Well… We might be able to use it to explain some of the problems that we ran into working on the artificial planets. Of course, this theory is not complete yet. Gravity is not involved, so it must still be problematic.” said Lucien.
Then Lucien mentioned some records of data that his students collected and the questions coming up, ”… so when we accelerated particles, there was a difference between the result and what we expected, and the theory of relativity would be able to explain it: Mass increases as the speed increases, so the orbital period also changes. We can use this formula to work out the variable and adjust the changing frequency of the electric field. If the particles can be further accelerated without trying away from the field, the theory of relativity will be able to be indirectly proved.”
Fernando decided to take action immediately. In his magic lab, Fernando did exactly as Lucien said.
Then Fernando got the particles that carried the greatest energy ever. Then, he released a sigh,
”Lucien, in your programme, Arcana Voice, you talked about outlook of world, on life, and on value. In my understanding, the outlook on the world is how an individual perceives the world. Apart from humanity and history, it equals a person's cognitive world.”
Lucien had no idea why Fernando wanted to talk about it now.
Fernando grinned, ”But when it comes to how to understand space, it also involves the outlook on life and values. So I'm thinking… Why don't we call you the Destroyer of Three Outlooks”
Lucien's face twitched a bit. He did not find Fernando's joke interesting.
Fernando looked Lucien up and down with a meaningful smile on his face,
”I've learned my lesson from you, Lucien. That's why I'm still here now after all of this. I am now more or less suspicious about every theoretical system. But for others, Lucien, you have to reveal your theory of relativity bit by bit, especially for Douglas. Your theory is a huge turnover to his, and he's been through a lot of things in the past one or two hundred years. The wave theory of light, quantum theory… I'm afraid that this might be too much for him to take. I mean, I don't think Douglas's head is going to explode or his demiplane is going to collapse. Not that bad. But what happened to Brook might happen to him again. Mental changes are possible, too.”
”Sir, I never thought of throwing it directly at people. You insisted..” Lucien could not help complaining.
Lucien had started feeling more casual in front of Fernando.
However, Fernando just directly ignored Lucien, ”I'll start with Oliver. He should be able to take it as he's seen the problems. Then I'll have him submit his paper to make the senior-rank and above think.”
”Why senior-rank and above?” Lucien asked.
”Because those below can't understand,” said Fernando succinctly.
Fernando then slowly walked back to his study and said.
”You're already level seven in terms of arcana credit. The argument between wave and particle theory is still going on, and the number of papers about your new alchemy should be booming soon. With all these, this paper should be able to take you to level eight. However, now you should work on improving your magic level, as it's just a matter of time for you to become a grand arcanist. You must have benefited from having the two legendaries temporarily living inside of your body, and I'm sure that the congress will also favor you to a great extent.”
Currently, Lucien had fifteen thousand arcana credits, which meant he was halfway from hitting level eight. He also expected that the reward credits from new alchemy would be very considerable.