1840 Indian Rebirth

Chapter 167 [Doctor Mayo]

Of course, Ma Shao knows about Dalton, the proponent of atomic theory, a famous chemist, or a physicist. After all, both physics and chemistry involve a lot of atomic theory.

Dalton, who was also colorblind, discovered the disease and made himself the first to be diagnosed.

He made a last wish during his lifetime, hoping that after his death, his eyes would be given to others for research to verify his conjecture that the watery fluid in his eyes might be blue.

Of course Dalton was wrong, and it was known shortly after his death a few years ago.The root of color blindness is not this.

But to commemorate Dalton, people still do a lot, such as singing "Blue-faced Dalton Stealing the Royal Horse" in a song... Well, this is actually a joke.

Dalton has been a teacher since he was 12 years old and has many students.Even so, Horse Whistle was still surprised to learn that Mayo had been Dalton's student.

"Since you are a student of Dalton, I think you should know his atomic theory very well." Ma Shao said.

Mayo was still surprised: "You also know atomic theory?"

Hearing what he said, the Indians in the room expressed their dissatisfaction.

Branch said directly: "Mayo, I told you, our great chief is the greatest scientist in the world, how could he not know about atomic theory, even I know about atomic theory."

Another Indian also said: "In Sleeping Bear City, atomic theory is one of the courses in mathematics and science courses. It was even mentioned in elementary school."

"Sorry, I just..." Mayo froze.

Of course, the Indians around him had boasted to him more than once about being the chief of Apache, but he didn't take it seriously.

He admitted that the Indians here are indeed different, very different, more surprising than the most developed Indians in the East.

While other Indians are paying high prices for wine, the Indians here are spending high prices to hire doctors and craftsmen, and are very active in learning and communicating with whites.

Not only that, some Indians here are also unusually civilized, with a wealth of common sense and insights.

In particular, his colleagues and superiors in this hospital are even more knowledgeable than most whites, and they almost invented ether anesthesia—as far as he knows, these Indian shamans began to perform ether anesthesia long before Morton disclosed ether anesthesia. tried.

Behind these unusually civilized Indians, it is not outrageous that there is an extraordinary chief.

But what is the difference between saying "the greatest scientist in the world" and "I am better than Newton", no matter how you listen to it, it is bragging, and it is too outrageous and shameless.

Even his teacher, John Dalton, would never be happy to hear such praise, it was simply a malicious compliment.

This not only won't make Mayo believe it, but it will make Mayo suspect that the chief of Apache is a vain guy, so that people love to praise him.

"It's okay, Branch." Ma Whistle smiled, "I understand the impression most white people have of us, and it is our mission to dispel this impression with facts."

Pause: "Also...don't say I'm the greatest scientist in the world."

Twig: "I think that's true."

Horse Whistle: "Maybe. But until it's fully proven, such strong praise doesn't bring me credit."

"Yes, I see, Warchief," said Branch.

The horse whistle looked at Mayo again: "Doctor Mayo, let's talk about atomic theory."

Mayo was a little dazed. When Ma Shuo said this in a strangely familiar tone, he had an inexplicable feeling that he was going to take the exam.

He said, "Okay, but . . . what are you going to talk about?"

"Let's talk about the Law of Doubling." Ma Shao thought for a moment and said.

Atomic theory has existed since ancient times.

Many philosophers of ancient civilizations held similar views, that is, they believed that all things are composed of some indivisible basic particles, and Democritus of ancient Greece is one of them.

But the ancient and simple atomic theory is called philosophy at best, and fantasy at worst. A smart and curious child can also have similar thinking.

It was not until John Dalton that atomic theory began to be reborn and possessed the characteristics of science.

Of course, Dalton's theory is still rough, and in the eyes of later generations, there are many fallacies, and even some chemical formulas are wrong.

The law of double ratio is the key to the transformation of atomic theory from philosophy to science.

As soon as the expert makes a move, he will know if there is any.

The horse whistle pointed directly at the core of Dalton's atomic theory, making Mayo realize that the next thing might really be an exam.

The great Indian chief did understand atomic theory, and not in general.

Horse Whistle really meant to test Mayo, he wanted to see how much this doctor who became a monk had learned from Dalton.

But this is also a test for himself.

His understanding of elementary particles is at the level of physics undergraduates in the 21st century, which is far beyond the times.

Therefore, he needs to limit his thinking to Dalton's atomic theory, which is at most three or fifty years ahead, and concepts such as "quarks" and "electron clouds" cannot pop up from time to time.

This is not easy, because these things have long been deeply rooted in his bone marrow, and they are the most basic common sense and habits, just like the Erhua sound in Beijing dialect.

In fact, Horse Whistle has done this kind of thing, but so far, he has not been in contact with white people who understand physics well, so no one can realize the problem.

This Dr. Mayo was different. He had been a student of Dalton anyway, so he had to be taken seriously.

The two talked about atomic theory, starting from the law of multiple ratios, and then talked about the simple ratio law of gas reaction volume, Avogadro's hypothesis...

And as Dr. Mayo had vaguely predicted, the conversation soon became like an exam.

The horse whistle's understanding of physics and chemistry is much higher than he imagined, at least far above him. He is sometimes stumped or reminded by the horse whistle, but he can't baffle the horse whistle the other way around.

Although the horse whistle sometimes thinks deeply, it looks more like thinking about how to express in English.

After the conversation became like an exam, it became a bit like a lecture.

"Mayo, you should give up the term 'water atom' or 'complex atom'." Ma Shao said.

At this time, most people do not have the concept of molecules, and they are more accustomed to calling molecules "complex atoms", or even just atoms.

Mayo hesitated: "Uh...why? People call it that."

Horse Whistle: "Have you heard of Avogadro's views? The Italian scientist, Avogadro."

Mayo thought for a while: "You mean...molecules?"

"That's right." Ma Shao nodded, and then said slowly, "We already know that water is composed of two kinds of atoms—hydrogen and oxygen."

"Since water is made up of atoms, it should not be classified as an atom anymore, and 'molecule' would be a more appropriate term."

Mayo pondered: "But as far as I know, Avogadro's hypothesis is wrong, at least everyone I know thinks so. First of all, it does not meet the requirements of 'electrochemical dualism'. According to electrochemical dualism, only electrical properties Opposite atoms can combine with complex atoms, and this hypothesis allows atoms with the same electrical properties to combine."

Horse Whistle smiled: "Avogadro's molecular hypothesis is indeed wrong, but so is Berzelius' electrochemical dualism, and Dalton's atomic theory. In my opinion, the error of electrochemical dualism is more Avogadro's hypothesis goes even further."

Mayo couldn't help asking: "Where is the atomic theory wrong?"

The horse whistle was silent for a while.

Dalton's atomic theory has many mistakes, but he can't point out all of them, because as far as the current observation results are concerned, many mistakes have no basis for judgment at all.

Then he said with discretion: "As we all know, Mr. Dalton's atom theory is inherited from ancient Greek philosophy."

"Democritus believed that atoms are indivisible elementary particles, but this is just an assumption or belief. People have not even separated much of the simple substance, let alone the division of atoms."

"Indeed, we know very little about such things as atoms." Mayo is obviously not a person of firm belief, and he is not too obsessed with the fundamental tenet of the indivisibility of atoms. "But atoms do seem to be indivisible, at least without evidence."

Horse Whistle suddenly asked: "Mayo, have you thought about the nature of electricity?"

Mayo: "Of course I have thought about it. In this era when electricity is gradually being used, who has never thought about this issue."

"But like everyone else, I didn't think about any results." He was a little emotional.

"Electricity...it's so mysterious."

In the era in which Ma Shao lived in his last life, quantum mechanics was gradually being applied by people, but people's understanding of quantum mechanics was still very limited.

Scientists are also full of confusion.Not to mention the folks, metaphysics and scams under the banner of quantum are very popular.

It was a similar situation with electricity in the nineteenth century.

The technology about electricity is developing all the time, and the telegraph is becoming more and more popular, but people's understanding of electricity is still hazy.

Many problems are known, but not why.

It will not be until the birth of Maxwell's equations more than ten years later, or even the discovery of electrons at the end of the century, that this completely ignorant state of human beings will gradually end.

Ma Shao said: "Have you ever thought that electric current may be a kind of matter, such as particles."

"Substance?" Mayo was taken aback.

Immediately he blurted out: "This sounds too unbelievable. I think electricity should at least be some kind of energy, or some other invisible thing, rather than that kind of real substance."

From the point of view of the era of relativity, matter and energy are one thing.

Stone is matter, fire is matter, electricity and light are matter, and force fields are matter.

But for people at this time, the concept of energy is still vague, and no one knows the specific relationship with matter.In the eyes of most people, such an ethereal thing as electricity can never be a substance.

A few people with big brains have indeed imagined the existence of charged subatomic particles, but basically no one paid attention.

Ma Shao naturally didn't intend to talk about the theory of relativity, so he changed the subject: "In other words, electricity has some basic material carriers, which are the structures that make up atoms, and are subatomic particles."

"Electric charge has positive and negative points. According to electrochemical dualism, electric charge is also an inherent property of atoms..."

"We can imagine that an atom is actually a structure similar to a magnet. Although each atom may have different positive and negative properties to the outside, it actually carries both positive and negative charges inside. There are two kinds of subatomic particles, one positive and one negative. , like a magnet with two poles at the same time."

"...In this way, as long as the opposite poles are connected, different magnets can be combined, and the same magnet can also be combined."

"That is to say, elements of the same kind can also be combined into molecules, and the contradiction between Avogadro's hypothesis and electrochemical dualism does not exist."

The above set of theories was compiled by Ma Shao in about half a minute.

This set of theories obviously has problems, and it is far from the real atomic structure, but considering the known observation results, this is already a more reasonable explanation.

At the very least, it could resolve one of the major problems facing Avogadro's hypothesis, namely, the structure of simple substances.

At this time, the vast majority of scientists believed that simple substances were individual atoms.There is no doubt that this is wrong.

Avogadro believed that the elemental substance is actually a pair of atoms, such as a hydrogen molecule is composed of two hydrogen atoms, and an oxygen molecule is composed of two oxygen atoms.

This is correct and common sense for people in the future.

But the problem was that Avogadro made another mistake—he believed that metals existed in this form as well.

This caused his experiments to always go wrong, and he was controversial in the academic circle, and his molecular hypothesis was not recognized for a long time.

Of course, intuitively, the most serious problem facing Avogadro's hypothesis is not just metals, but the conflict with electrochemical dualism.

Electrochemical dualism does not allow the combination of the same elements - opposites attract, like repels, the same two elements combine, what is that like!

In the current scientific world, electrochemical dualism and atomic theory have almost the same status, and Berzelius' reputation is similar to that of Dalton. Therefore, Avogadro's theory has been judged to be wrong by many people.

This set of theories compiled by Ma Shao casually, although it is only a slight adjustment to the existing theories, does solve this problem.

The connection between electricity and magnetism has been discovered, which sounds quite plausible, even natural.

Although Mayo is not a professional scientist, he can still understand this image. After thinking about it for a while, his eyes lit up: "This is a perfect idea!"

Then he looked at the horse whistle and said a little excitedly: "I believe now, Great Chief, you are indeed a great scientist!"

Ma Shao smiled and said nothing.

After this exchange, Mayo was obviously respectful: "Chief, have you considered publishing these ideas? It should be known to the whole world, not buried here."

Ma Shao sighed slightly: "I am an Indian, and the United States may not allow me to publish my paper."

Mayo: "Europe is also possible, although it is a bit further away. Compared with the United States, science in Europe is more prosperous."

(End of this chapter)