Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
In the study of Babel.
Lucien was lying in his armchair with his eyes closed. In front of him, there was a glass of water which had not been touched. In fact, he was reading the quantum mechanics books in his spirit library, especially those regarding matrix mechanics. At the same time, he was also calculating something.
Even for Lucien right now, matrix mechanics was very difficult. It required lots of patience and perseverance to dig in, and its coldness and complexity could easily drive away any beginners.
Lucien could have first thrown out matter waves and then Schrödinger equation. In this way, he could use a much easier way which was more familiar to most arcanists, especially those in the school of electromagnetics and light-darkness, to start introducing wave mechanics. Wave mechanics was also a major branch of quantum mechanics, and it could solve most problems in the current new alchemy system.
In this case, Lucien had to start from wave theory. However, Lucien had been regarded as one of the representatives of particle theory. If Lucien chose to abandon those arcanists who had been believing in him, this might lead to many of his friends and acquaintances having their heads explode. Lucien had to avoid it, of course.
Therefore, Lucien had to refer to matrix mechanics which based on particle theory and discontinuity theory to solve the problems facing new alchemy. After particle theory supporters were totally convinced of their belief, Lucien would throw at them matter waves and electron diffraction to make them gradually ready to accept an extra add-on: wave–particle duality.
Matrix mechanics and wave mechanics sounded like another battlefield launched within the war between wave theory and particle theory. But in fact, they were equivalent to each other in terms of math, different expressions based on the same theory.
Lucien felt the word “matrix” rather fashionable to him, and he believed that it was because of the movie, the Matrix.
Closing the book he was reading, Lucien took a deep breath and started drafting on the paper sheet to clarify his own understanding.
Although the past six-month effort was enough for Lucien to master basic matrix mechanics, he had not yet tried to do the deduction nor the experiment. Therefore, he had not received the feedback from this world. Also, half of his time over the six months had been used on constructing the legendary-level magic models.
Space Staff was relatively easy to him. After his soul recovered, Lucien had only spent less than two weeks on it. The other spell, Vengeful Gaze, was also almost completed, as Lucien used the knowledge on laser and had successfully simplified it.
The room was filled with light scent. Natasha had left. They were not living together, because they were not yet married and they were still working on their big plan for Kritonia. From time to time, Natasha would come and stay in Allyn for several days, and sometimes it was Lucien’s turn to visit the Grand duke in Nekso Palace and stay there.
They were using Hathaway’s demiplane, leaving no chance for Kritonia to take advantage of. They frequently visited the Land of a Thousand Lakes as if they were not worrying about their own safety. And indeed nothing dangerous ever happened to them there.
Taking a deep breath, Lucien was quite cautious about the upcoming wedding in several months. If Kritonia and his people did not jump out on their wedding, Lucien had also made up his mind to show Kritonia his legendary power to intimidate Kritonia. There was no way that they had to live in this extreme caution. And if that was the case, Lucien and Natasha had better just move into his demiplane, where they would definitely be much safer. Lucien could always set up a space jump spot in Nekso Palace and one in the Magic Tower of Allyn.
Lucien pulled himself out of these thoughts and put down the quill-pen. When he was about to return back to his work on analyzing Vengeful Gaze, someone knocked at his door.
Lucien knew that it was Leo, who was holding a letter standing beside the door on the other side.
“Come in.” said Lucien.
“Master, this’s a letter from Mr. Raventi.” said Leo straightforward, who knew that Lucien never like hearing people gabbling when he was studying arcana and magic.
“Put it on the desk.” Lucien was not surprised. He had been in contact with the top leaders of the Will of Elements and some arcanists he knew. In the past six month, Raventi had been writing to him frequently discussing new Alchemy.
After Leo closed the door, Lucien finally picked the letter up. His Host Star of Destiny was telling him that this letter had brought him something significant, and something bad.
Lucien unfolded the letter and his first glance had instantly seized his full attention. The bold hypothesis looked very similar to matter waves, also known as the de Broglie waves, to him.
Who had released the terrible monster already? Lucien never expected this, but he knew that things like this would always happen. He could not predict everything.
Lucien kept reading further as what happened had already happened. As he was reading, he thought to himself very carefully how to minimize the impact.
Lucien thought to himself that from wave theory, this could be regarded as the standing wave on the track. In this case, the number of fixed tracks could only be an integral multiple of wavelength, and then quantization made sense… As he was thinking, he rubbed his brows.
After a while, Lucien put the letter down on the desk and sighed to himself, “This world also has bold arcanists who are full of imagination. Fortunately, he has not done electron diffraction experiment yet, or I have to use the power of a grand arcanist to delay the submission of his paper. Countless heads will explode if the time isn’t correct.”
If Lucien would just directly throw the arcanists this paper, he knew for certain that at least one third of the highest-ranked arcanists would not be able to take it. Some of them would explode their heads, some’s cognitive world would be broken and solidified, and the rest would also get lost for a long, long time. After all, all the previous findings and experiments were showing for certain that electrons were particles. No one ever doubted it.
But Lucien decided not to delay the submission of the paper, as there was no solid experiment support yet. He wanted to exert his authority to make arcanists treat this problem seriously. When they were mentally more prepared and after they put enough thought into it, Lucien would introduce electron diffraction experiment.
So he wrote down his response,
“A hypothesis full of amazing imagination…”
……
Before dinner time, the winter sun already sank below the horizon, and it was now completely dark. Dieppe walked back and forth anxiously in Raventi’s magic tower and his mind was full of weird and even completely contradictory thoughts.
“If Mr. Evans agrees with me, then is that saying electrons are indeed waves? That’s incredible… but no evidence can support it…”
His finding came from bold deduction, therefore, Dieppe was also suspicious of it. If Mr. Lucien Evans did support him, he would still have a hard time accepting it. Electrons were waves – This was something ridiculous even to the ordinary person, and also to the person who put it forward.
“If Mr. Evans doesn’t agree with me, perhaps I am truly wrong.”
In this case, the world would go back to normal, and it would be a relief to Dieppe as well. However, he would also be unwilling to accept it, as this bold paper derived from his years of hard work and the spark of his wisdom.
“Then no matter what, even if Mr. Evans is not on my side, as long as he can’t point out any obvious error in my paper, I’ll stick to my paper and find an experiment to support it. I’m not giving in.”
The conflicting thoughts almost drove Dieppe crazy. He realized that he was still expecting Lucien Evans’s approval, as he kept encouraging himself.
Why did it take so long? Dieppe looked at the window again. He had repeated the action over a hundred times since noon.
Although he understood that Mr. Evans must be very busy with his magic and arcana study, Dieppe could not help waiting expectantly.
At this time, he saw a familiar bird flying towards the magic tower. He was thrilled and dashed to Raventi’s study. He even cast on himself Advanced Speed.
After several seconds, Dieppe was already sitting in front of Raventi, waiting for the messenger’s return.
“You’ve been waiting for this?” Raventi looked at Dieppe seriously.
Dieppe nodded, but could not say a word.
At this time, this cute little messenger finally arrived through the window. Raventi took over the letter it was carrying and opened it slowly.
Dieppe stared at the expression on Raventi’s face. He had to force himself not to cast a spell to probe into Raventi’s brain to know the answer earlier.
Raventi directly turned the paper to the last page and took a glance at it. And then the look on his face changed. There was confusion and solemnity.
“What did Mr. Evans say, sir…?” Dieppe could not wait any longer.
“Hum…” Raventi’s voice was a bit trembling, and he started reading the letter to his student,
“Lucien said: ‘It’s a hypothesis full of amazing imagination, which leads us to the other possible aspect of electrons. The truth of the world has been covered by a heavy, black curtain, preventing us from seeing what is hiding behind. Maybe this paper is pulling up a corner of the curtain and showing us a small part of the truth…’”
Dieppe’s head buzzed. Indeed, he hoped that Mr. Evans would agree with him, but he never expected such an approving comment.
Pulling up a corner of the curtain and showing us a small part of the truth… That was amazing!
The wild joy struck Dieppe fiercely. The approval and support from an authority was terribly important to a hard-working individual. But soon Dieppe calmed down as an arcanist, and he murmured, “But I still need an experiment to support it.”
Raventi nodded, and he kept reading, “… I would like to believe in the fact that wave–particle duality can be applied to all microscopic particles. This is the path to end the long-time war between particle and wave theory. However, no matter how bold and sensible a deduction is, experiment support is always indispensable. I suggest that the paper be submitted immediately to the arcanists in the school of electromagnetics for publication, so that everyone knows the extraordinary work that you’ve been working on and start experimenting.”
“I totally have no problem with it! It’s good!” Dieppe hurriedly said in a trembling voice, his back extremely straight.
Raventi, however, was still confused,
“Electron… waves?”
