Goal-Digger's Thesis (III)

Joseph wore an excited expression as he greeted them one by one. When confronted with Laplace, though, he couldn't help but quietly clench his fists and mentally beat him up - a common wish that science and engineering students in later times would rush to make when faced with a complex problem on a test paper and looking hopelessly out the window, only to happen to see a shooting star flying by there.

Back then, Joseph didn't have the chance to beat up Laplace, now this damn guy actually stood in front of his eyes, but Joseph still couldn't beat him up and could only greet him with incomparable enthusiasm and said: "Mr. Laplace, I've read some of your writings and those things have inspired me a lot. What a blessing to be able to meet you!" 

While saying that, he also put both hands out and held his hand, just like President Trump held Macron's hand, first giving it a firm squeeze, then violently pulling the other's hand towards his side, pulling Laplace to stagger and almost fall down.

"Mr. Laplace, it's such an honor to meet you, and I have so many questions I'd like to ask you about things like ..." Joseph said so while gritting his back teeth with a full smile on his face while using all his strength. He squeezed Laplace's hand hard with both hands.

"Ah ... Mr. Bonaparte ... Mr. Bonaparte ... you really ... better sit down and then ... talk slowly ... slowly ... slowly." Laplace's right shoulder shrugged high, and he broke off as he struggled to pull his hand back.

"Ah, Mr. Bonaparte, let us sit down and talk. You are so enthusiastic that you may have hurt Pierre's hand." Seeing Joseph so enthusiastic and Laplace's face contorted a little in pain from his grip, Lavoisier couldn't help but feel slightly inclined to laugh, but he called out to Joseph.

"Huh?" Joseph made a startled face and hurriedly let go of Laplace's hand with lightning-like force and kept apologizing: "Mr. Laplace, I'm really sorry, I'm really sorry, I'm just so excited to see you ... this is really ... you're not hurt ..."

Laplace moved his right hand around a bit and said, "Mr. Bonaparte, how did you get so powerful."

'Pain and hatred have given me strength.' Joseph thought this, but said, "I often help Father Jean-Jacques with carpentry, so the strength in my hands is probably slightly greater."

"That's not slightly greater." Laplace said, "But we won't discuss that now - you know, we saw that paper of yours, which Mr. Lavoisier and Mr. Condorcet admired, but you know that your paper tries to disprove a theory that is universally supported and backed up by a lot of experimental phenomena, and that's a big thing, and everybody thought it would be better to be cautious about it, and so Mr. Lavoisier and Mr. Condorcet, along with a number of other gentlemen, would like to talk to you face to face about some of the things that have happened in relation to this paper ..."

"Let's be honest," Condorcet said with a gentle smile towards Joseph, "Mr. Bonaparte, this paper of yours is one of the few high level papers that have come along in years, and other than that, those few mathematical tools in the paper alone are enough to win you the prize. But there are some and not so many people who agree with your conclusions. Well, at least Columb and Monge don't really like that conclusion of yours. They're on their way over, and maybe they'll have a bunch of questions for you. You need to be prepared for that."

"Mr. Condorcet, you will just call me Joseph." Joseph said, "I considered this before writing this one. Honestly, when I came to that conclusion, I was worried I had gotten it wrong too. And I'm writing this paper so that I can discuss this with others."

"Haha, young people nowadays are really good." Lavoisier said, "Joseph, do you mean you are ready? Well, you don't have to be nervous, actually ..."

The words were only half spoken when they heard the door to the small parlor being pushed open.

Joseph saw a few more people walk in and rushed to his feet.

The others followed suit and stood up. Leading the way in was none other than His Royal Highness, Duke Louis-Philippe Joseph of Orleans, whom Joseph had met once before at the café. Behind him followed two men in military uniforms, one older, looking about fifty years old, the other slightly shorter, with a bronze-colored face and a pair of beady eyes under thick eyebrows.

"What brings you here, Your Highness the Duke?" Condorcet said.

"Ah, Monsieur Condorcet, I was passing through here today, and had come to pay a visit to Monge, and, hearing him speak of things here, and finding that the Monsieur Bonaparte, who started the controversy, appeared to be a young friend of my acquaintance, named Joseph, like myself, I came to see what was going on. As a result ... Joseph, it's really you." Duke Chartres said as he walked over and extended his hand to shake Joseph's. Laplace stared wide-eyed at their hands, yet ...

"Ah, Joseph, the last time I met you, I thought we would have another playwright in France, but I didn't realize it was a mathematician instead. However, Mr. Monge doesn't seem to agree with some of your points. I want to discuss this with you, but of course, I don't understand any of this stuff at all. I'm just here to watch the fun." Duke Orleans let go of Joseph's hand and added, "By the way Joseph, let me introduce you to these two friends of mine."

He pointed to the older one and said, "This is Mr. Coulomb, he's an authority on electricity." Then he pointed to the shorter, younger one and introduced him, "This is Monsieur Monge, who is an authority on geometry."

Joseph rushed forward and greeted Coulomb and Monge. On the other hand, Duke Chartres found himself a chair and sat down, "As you know, I don't know much about science, but I am very interested in it. Monge, you have quite a few questions for Joseph, so that you can start now."

Monge was a straightforward person, and when he heard this, he immediately spoke up: "Mr. Bonaparte, you identified light as a transverse wave in your paper, and the mathematical derivation is impressive, but you should know that both any and waves propagate in a medium, and if light really is a wave, what characteristics of this medium, and of this luminiferous aether, would be required for it to be a wave, and have you thought about that?"

Joseph was prepared for this question because, in later history, questioning the "luminiferous aether" was the main weapon the proponents of particle theory used to oppose the wave theory.

"For that matter, here's what I think ...," Joseph spoke up.

Joseph knew that the so-called "luminiferous aether" had been discarded by scientists in later times. But at this point, he is not in a position to state outright that the Ether does not exist because that would require a very large number of scientific discoveries and scientific experiments as a pre-foundation. So he had to deal with Monge's question by taking some of the conjectures of the supporters of what those fluctuations had said prior to that.

"The question about the hardness of the Ether also involves what the speed of light really is, and I envisioned an experiment that could be used to measure the speed of light more accurately. Considering that the Earth is in constant motion, then it should be in constant motion relative to the Ether as well, so the measured speed of light might be different from different directions ..."

"A more precise way to measure the speed of light?" Condorcet came interested.

"We use an eight-sided lens ... that can be rotated," Joseph said. The method he was talking about was the Michelson Rotating Prism Method. It is a relatively simple and good means of measuring accuracy.

As Joseph described the experimental concept, he took a piece of paper and a quill in his hand and began to sketch the design of the equipment needed for the experiment.

Joseph habitually depicts those devices in the same way that drawing three-sided projection maps in later times is common. But as soon as he saw the diagrams he had drawn, Monge's eyes snapped open.

"Mr. Bonaparte, where did you learn this way of drawing?" Monge asked, opening his mouth.

"Huh?" Joseph was taken aback. He originally thought that this kind of drawing method should be a prevalent technique. Still, when he heard Monge ask this question and saw the extraordinarily serious expression on Monge's face, he immediately realized that, perhaps, in this era, this kind of drawing method didn't appear at all.

"I drew it up myself, I think it's more visual and easier to understand. Why, is there a problem here?" Joseph said.

Monge thought for a moment and replied, "Monsieur Bonaparte, you may, no, you certainly don't know, that I began to use a similar mapping method almost twenty years ago. But because of the military significance of this method of mapping-which, I think, is not difficult for you, with your intelligence, to understand-this method of mapping is kept in strictest secrecy. It can only be taught in military academies, and, all officers who have learned these elements must take an oath not to pass on such techniques. I stated to the above back in the day that it probably wouldn't be long before someone else independently researched out of this similar technique, just as Newton and Leibniz invented calculus, respectively. However, since your drawing is so similar to that of secrecy, I am afraid that you will need to keep this achievement under wraps as well. Mr. Bonaparte, you have not taught this method of charting to others, have you?"

"This technique I have taught only to my brother Napoleon, who is now in his first year at the École Militaire in Paris. Well, he's good at math, too."

"First year, first year doesn't have access to descriptive geometry yet." Monge said, "Mr. Bonaparte, you'll have to remind him that this technique is not to be spread."

"There's such a thing?" Duke Chartres was rather interested, "Monge, science should belong to all mankind. It's not good to keep it secret like this."

"Duke, this is not my intention, this is the decision of the Royal Court. And I have no choice but to obey." Monge replied. He turned to Joseph again and said, "Mr. Bonaparte, this discovery should have brought you honor and status, but today, you must keep it hidden. It is a necessary sacrifice for the sake of France, and I hope you will understand."

Joseph nodded, "I understand that while science has no borders, scientists have a nationality."

"Just like Leibniz's calculus is still quite a bit different from Newton's. Mr. Bonaparte, I suppose there is also some difference between your method of painting and that of Monge." Coulomb suddenly spoke up, "Can you tell us about your drawing?"