Chapter 553: Doing "Work"
Ace’s expression showed slight hesitation, but he then said firmly: “If we don’t discuss it now, there might be even more problems later. Moreover, Thales’s new theory is not that perfect. Compared to the certain ‘action at a distance,’ Thales’s new theory lacks a clear mathematical explanation. This is exactly where it can be discussed and perfected.”
Hearing Ace’s words, Bayen’s expression relaxed slightly. Thinking carefully, although Thales’s new theory was very fluent and had no problems other than lacking a mathematical foundation, mathematics itself was the biggest problem.
And conducting a widespread discussion at this time was exactly the best opportunity. If the concepts of lines of force and force fields were negated, there would be no value in discussing them. If the concepts were mathematically proven, it would directly impact magical mechanics even more.
At this time, Ace continued:
“The magical mechanics I discovered was never the eternal truth of all things right from the start. It is only the relative truth within our currently observable scope. The observational power of the vast majority of wizards has not surpassed magical mechanics, so their intuitive feeling is that they are under the rule of magical mechanics.
“From an application perspective, magical mechanics is indeed enough to benefit most wizards for a lifetime. I’m afraid many wizards with limited aptitude will find it hard to break out of the barriers of magical mechanics in their entire lives.
“Aptitude determines vision, vision determines height, and height determines the future.”
A week later, the article On the Physical Lines of Magnetic Force appeared as a supplement in the journal Magic. It was like dropping a massive stone onto a calm lake, or like a monster bursting into a beautiful dream, puncturing reality.
The first feeling of many wizards was rejection. Some astrological wizards even shouted: “Whoever hesitates between the certain action at a distance and the vague concept of lines of force is blaspheming His Holiness Ace!”
But many newly emerging wizards in electromagnetism also began to strongly support Thales. However, undoubtedly, they lacked the necessary mathematical proof.
Blania had already arrived at the Central High Tower. She was still wearing rimless glasses, her graceful figure hidden by a loose magic robe. Wearing crystal high heels, a pile of math monographs half a person high was running clack, clack behind her.
Looking closely, one would find it was a little bean-sized wooden figure, strenuously balancing books several times its own height on its head.
“Thales is really audacious to actually dare to question action at a distance!”
“Keep your voice down. He has advanced to Legend. Be careful he doesn’t make things hard for you.”
“What ‘the world is a wave,’ and magnetic fields and electric fields—it’s simply incomprehensible gibberish.”
“I heard several Golden Wizards’ heads exploded with a bang, and their headless corpses fell straight down. It’s too terrifying.”
…
The clack, clack of footsteps and the tap, tap, tap of crystal high heels. The wizards who were discussing suddenly stopped, looking at this frail and beautiful witch in front of them with an angry face, not understanding why.
Blania said angrily: “What is a wave? What are magnetic fields and electric fields? What are magnetic lines of force and electric lines of force? If you don’t understand, you can humbly seek advice from Lord Thales, instead of wagging your tongues behind his back here. As wizards, don’t you feel this is shameful?”
The few wizards exchanged glances. One of the men said cautiously: “We were just casually discussing recent news with no disrespect intended. What Your Excellency said is very unrealistic. Our academic level is very average, and we indeed don’t have the qualification to seek advice from Lord Thales.”
Another woman said with a slightly sharp voice: “Even Lord Bayen wrote an editor’s note saying the paper On the Physical Lines of Magnetic Force is highly controversial and lacks mathematical theoretical proof. Even if we have doubts, it’s very normal.
“Lord Ace said that people with the power of thought are the measure of all things, and the most important spirit of wizards is the objective and neutral research spirit. Since there is no mathematical proof, naturally we have doubts. We have the right to express our own views.
“The vast majority of wizards live under the rule of magical mechanics. Since you haven’t convinced us mathematically, of course we will question. If we don’t question, are we supposed to die in a violent conflict like those Golden Wizards whose heads exploded?”
Another wizard also said: “Exactly. Either the new theory can convince us to accept it, and everyone will wholeheartedly accept that His Excellency Thales has observed the limitations of magical mechanics and found the relative truth of a broader space.
“If you can’t make us accept it wholeheartedly, we will question it. Are we supposed to be half-believing and half-doubting? This is the easiest way to shake the Soul Sanctuary space, even causing the collapse of the mental imagery world. Is a large number of wizards dying what you want?”
Blania was trembling all over from being choked by their words, but she also knew that what they said made sense. Lacking mathematical proof, there was no way to implement the genius ideas of “lines of force” and “force fields.”
Although there was Great Source feedback, the Great Source’s feedback was indeed not much. It was just exactly the last straw that made Thales’s accumulation completely sufficient, naturally breaking through to the Legendary realm.
Based on Blania’s familiarity with A History of Wizards, when Legendary Wizard Betty proposed the erroneous phlogiston theory, the Great Source also had feedback. As long as it was an approximation of the truth, it could provide feedback. Therefore, Blania couldn’t use this to argue that Thales’s theory was correct.
Her pretty face turned bright red from holding it in. Suppressing herself, she said slowly: “My name is Blania. You are very right. Wizards’ matters must be proven with mathematics and experiments. I will prove it to you!”
After saying that, she walked away quickly, her high heels tapping tap, tap, tap. The little bean wooden figure followed behind her clack, clack, clack, balancing a large pile of math monographs on its head.
Those few people looked at each other in dismay. The witch with the sharp voice asked: “Who is Blania?”
A male wizard fell into memory, whispering: “When I was studying at the Central Magic School on Planet Alpha, I remember there was a legend circulating in the school, the legend of a female math genius. Although I didn’t see her, the name seemed to be Blania something.”
Another wizard looked at Blania’s back and suddenly whispered: “I remember now. This witch is His Excellency Thales’s secretary. I specifically took a look when the announcement came out.”
They were somewhat dumbfounded for a moment. They were just discussing, but didn’t expect to run into Thales’s secretary. It was simply crashing right into her face; no wonder she was angry.
The witch with the sharp voice was still somewhat unconvinced: “Even if she really is a math genius, she is only a genius from the magic school era. There is a difference between a human calculator and a real genius. In the field of mathematics, if you can do it, you can; if you can’t, you really can’t.”
It could be seen that she also seemed to be a heartbroken person, having been hurt by higher mathematics.
Blania walked out the main gate with heavy steps. Taking a button out of her magic robe pocket, she tossed it lightly. With a pop, the button turned into a magic flying carpet and landed slowly on the ground.
The wooden figure ran up clack, clack, clack, placed the large pile of books on the magic flying carpet, and panted.
Blania plopped down on the magic flying carpet. The magic flying carpet sped towards Thales’s new Wizard Tower. After arriving at the Wizard Tower, like a little housewife, Blania unfastened the buttons one by one, conjuring various necessities, and then settled them in proper places.
Thales was still meditating, slowly constructing his mental imagery world. Blania prepared his midday meal, had the wooden figure balance the pile of books back to her own direction, and relying on the midday sunlight, began to research.
…
While Blania devoted herself to researching mathematical theories, inside Betty’s Wizard Tower.
Betty was repeating the double-slit interference experiment of light. This was first discovered by Golden Wizard Thomas. Through the double-slit interference experiment, he negated the corpuscular theory of light, believing that light is a wave.
When Thales’s thoughts on waves were intensifying, Betty repeated this experiment. The result of the experiment was the same as Thomas’s record. Shining a beam of light onto two mutually parallel narrow slits, a pattern of alternating bright and dim fringes was displayed on the projection screen.
Betty pondered and murmured: “Interference and diffraction are properties unique to waves. The double-slit experiment undoubtedly proves that light is a wave. Then the magneto-optic effect shows the myriad connections between light, electricity, and magnetism. Could electromagnetism also be a wave?
“And the generalized concept of energy proposed by Thomas: light is a kind of energy, so electromagnetic and chemical energy can both be regarded as a kind of energy? Even mana is the same?”
She was still thinking, but hadn’t obtained definitive evidence. This was extremely dangerous for a wizard, even making effective meditation impossible. Because such matters involving cognition of the world, a slight carelessness would cause one’s head to explode.
Betty didn’t want to become the first Legendary Wizard to lose her head. After the experiment, she cast a Mental Stamping Spell on herself, temporarily fixing her mind, waiting to undo it after meditation.
While Betty was meditating, one of her young assistants, Donna, was doing an experiment. This girl was a native of the Wizard World. Because she was also named Donna, she caught Betty’s eye and was selected to be her assistant.
Donna was doing a small experiment, rubbing two pieces of ice against each other, and eventually, the ice all melted into water.
She wrote in her experimental report: “Heat should not be a physical object, but a kind of particle motion or vibration within an object. This might be some inexplicable energy different from mana.”
As a math genius, Donna also came from Planet Alpha and was an alumna of the witch Blania.
Her thick mathematical proof formulas were filled with mathematical proofs regarding magical mechanics, such as the parallelogram principle of force resolution.
As Betty’s assistant, Donna often published papers in some second-rate academic tabloids. This time her goal was very high, wanting to publish a paper in Magic. The small experiment about ice was just Donna’s routine filler paper to increase academic points. That paper was submitted to Elemental Miscellany.
She was only one Arcane Point short of becoming a Level 1 Arcane Scholar, enjoying treatment equivalent to a Level 1 Wizard.
“Done.”
Clapping her hands, Donna stuffed the small experiment paper into the Shadow Crow’s mouth and watched it flap its wings and fly away.
Although Donna was called an assistant, in a sense she was also Betty’s apprentice, it was just that Betty didn’t take apprentices.
She left a message for Betty through the Tower Spirit and then went to the Central High Tower. Here was the largest library and study room in the entire Academic City. For just one Level 1 Magic Stone, all past journals and academic monographs of the entire Magic Council could be borrowed here, just not taken out.
The study room here possessed a dynamically expanding magical state. It was said to be Lord Ace’s Mythical Spell, permanently fixing a subspace that would freely adjust the rooms, desks, and chairs according to the number of people.
She purposefully searched for journals related to heat, and happened to see a witch, wearing rimless glasses, looking very frail, her eyes bright and resolute, with beautiful features.
“Senior Sister Blania?”
Blania, who was buried in the ocean of calculus, didn’t hear and was still calculating earnestly. Donna smiled happily, placed her books gently on the next desk, and went to find the journals she needed first.
She found the latest issues of Magic, Elements, and Combustion. In the journal Combustion, she found an interesting paper: On “Vis Viva” and “Dead Force”.
Glancing at Blania and seeing she was still calculating earnestly, she wasn’t in a hurry to strike up a conversation, but earnestly studied this article.
Her eyes slowly brightened, as if holding sunlight. This paper detailed the so-called “vis viva” (living force) and “dead force.”
“Dead force considers the temporal nature of the action of force, while vis viva considers the spatial nature of the action of force. Time and distance are not comparable, and there is no need to compare dead force and vis viva. These are two different astrological quantities.”
Donna nodded. In contemporary research, apart from Her Excellency Betty, most people didn’t recognize the concept of energy. Many people believed that energy was characteristic of supernatural mana. The so-called vis viva was just some researchers’ description of energy.
Donna didn’t dwell on it either. She was thinking about how to describe the physical quantity “vis viva.” This would definitely be a tough nut to crack. Just as she was thinking, she suddenly saw Blania opposite her.
The little bean wooden figure carefully climbed onto the table. It was round and bulging, looking like a ball with hands and feet from afar.
It was carefully carrying books, afraid of disturbing its master who was thinking earnestly. Suddenly, with a smack, it tripped, rolled roll, roll, roll several times on the table, and barely avoided falling off.
Donna seemed to have been tapped by someone. Her eyes brightened, and she shouted: “Yes, that’s how it rolls!”
Blania’s train of thought was interrupted. She looked up dissatisfied, about to speak, when she suddenly saw it was Donna, and her anger turned to joy: “Donna? Why are you here?”
Donna replied happily: “Wait a moment, Senior Sister. I’ve got it.”
Blania didn’t understand, leaned over, and saw Donna write:
“How to describe vis viva? We can introduce such a quantity called ‘Work.’ Work = Force * Distance. That is to say, 1 Work represents the capacity consumed by a force pulling an object a certain distance.
“In an ideal situation, this part of the capacity is converted into the kinetic energy of the object.”
Blania was very smart and instantly understood Donna’s description. She directly brought a chair and sat next to Donna. The two calculated together like this. They agreed to do several experiments together. Finally, using calculus, they deduced that work is equal to half of vis viva, and 1/2 of vis viva represents the kinetic energy of the object.
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