Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Lu Zhou discovered that he was trending.
The kind that grew exponentially.
This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. However, this was completely beyond his expectations. He thought that after he released his paper, it would only cause a sensation in the physics world. He didn’t expect that even the “Washington Post” would talk about him in their headlines.
Also…
Columbia TV also invited Professor Suskander from Stanford University to do a pop-science interview program.
As one of the founders of string theory, Professor Suskander was one of the veterans in the field of theoretical physics. Even though research on Z particles was not his specialty, he was an expert on the general theory of relativity and spacetime curvature.
Faced with the interviewer from Columbia TV, Professor Suskander, who was inside his laboratory, thought for a while. He took out a white piece of paper from his desk.
“Do you see this paper?”
Interviewer: “I do… But Professor Suskander, is there anything special about it?”
“Let’s assume it represents a three-dimensional space, with point A as the earth and point B as the neighboring star 4.22 light-years away from us. Now I use a straight line to connect them…”
Professor Suskander used a ballpoint pen to draw a line between the two points on the paper.
He looked at the confused interviewer and said, “Normally, we go from our solar system to the neighboring star, that is, from A to B. Even if we ignore the various complex orbital changes and proceed along a straight line, it is a long journey. This is because our universe is actually distorted, just like this…”
The old professor crumpled the white paper in his hand and shoved it in front of the interviewer.
“See this? This is what our universe really looks like. The white paper ball represents three-dimensional space. Because there is a gravitational force throughout the universe, higher-dimensional space is distorted.
“As you can see, A and B are actually very close together. They’re almost touching… But this is looking at it from a high dimensional view.
“Because we are three-dimensional creatures, we cannot leave the surface of the paper. So the shortest distance we can travel is the straight line.”
Professor Suskander unfolded the paper ball in his hand. He pointed at the line on the paper and said, “This is the line the Falcon rockets have to travel.
“But with a warp drive, this path won’t appear on the paper at all. We can go straight to the fourth or fifth dimension…
“Just like this!”
Suskander crunched the paper into a ball again. He pierced the pen through the paper.
As the gray-haired old man looked at the amazed interviewer, he smiled and continued, “I hope you understand.
“If not, let me give you an example.
“With this method, it might only take half an hour to get to Mars.
“I think that makes things clear.”
The interview continued.
But the latter half was much less interesting.
Lu Zhou picked up the remote control and turned off the TV. He was sitting on the sofa in the living room. He gave his thoughts on the program.
“It’s a very vivid interpretation, and the analogy is quite unique… Mostly correct.”
The only problem was that the professor was being too optimistic.
Even if the Z particle had this magical characteristic of being able to act as a space bridge, it was still difficult to use it to achieve warp travel… At least for the next fifty years.
Of course, for a pop-science program, Professor Suskander did quite a good job.
For people who lacked spatial imagination, it was easier to imagine the universe as a paper ball with dots on the surface.
However, Director Li, who was sitting across from Lu Zhou, seemed to have misunderstood his words.
The old man grabbed the armrests of the leather sofa. He was so excited his beard almost fell off. He looked like he might have a heart attack at any moment.
“Is this real? It will only take half an hour to get to Mars?”
Lu Zhou said, “Half an hour is an exaggeration. This is just a theory, you know what I mean? Even for something as simple as the atomic bomb, it took twenty years between the discovery of the mass-energy equation to Otto Hahn’s uranium fission thesis.”
The Z particle was also more difficult to find stably than ordinary subatomic particles. Applications for subatomic particles such as mesons, quarks, gluons, and photons had not yet been found. It was way too early to consider the applications of the Z particle.
Scientific progress needed time to develop. Only when the time was right, could a discovery turn into an amazing technology.
Lu Zhou didn’t know when this day would come.
By his estimation, it would at least take a century?
While thinking, Lu Zhou’s eyes stared at Director Li’s fingers on the sofa armrest.
He wasn’t worried that this old man would have a heart attack. This old man was much tougher than he imagined. The only thing Lu Zhou worried about was that the old man would break his sofa.
He quite liked this sofa.
Many world-famous or soon-to-be world-famous physicists and mathematicians had sat here and had cups of coffee with him before.
It might not be a historical relic, but there was at least some meaning behind it.
After Director Li heard Lu Zhou deny the claim that they could reach Mars within half an hour, Director Li couldn’t help but look disappointed. His elevated blood pressure gradually dropped as he muttered, “So… We can’t take a shortcut to Mars?”
Lu Zhou took a sip of coffee, thought for a while, then said with a sigh, “It’s not impossible…”
In an instant, Director Li’s blood pressure rose again at a speed visible to the naked eye.
This time, he nearly had a heart attack.
The old man sat up straight and stared at Lu Zhou with frantic eyes as he asked sincerely, “How?”
“Let’s start with verifying the theory.” Lu Zhou put down the coffee cup in his hand. He looked at Director Li seriously and said, “For example, send a Z particle clock to Mars orbit first.”
Director Li immediately asked, “Then what?”
“Then?”
Lu Zhou smiled and leaned back on the sofa. He raised his eyebrows and said, “Then we send a pair of photons.”
