Volume 1: Student Life Chapter 224 What is a conjecture and why should we study conjectures?
Looking at this scene, Principal Qiu smiled slightly and returned the microphone to the host teacher.
The host teacher smiled and said, "Since everyone has agreed, there is no problem. Then, you can ask questions as much as you want, but you must maintain the discipline of the auditorium and ask them one by one. Otherwise, I am very worried that your questions will confuse Chen Zhou, who has solved the hail conjecture problem."
Everyone smiled knowingly when they heard the host teacher's words, but the basic rules were also established.
"Now, let's hand over the stage to our classmate Chen Zhou."
After saying that, the host handed the microphone to Chen Zhou, pushed Chen Zhou to the front of the stage, and quietly reminded him that if he wanted to hear someone's question, he could just "click on that person".
Chen Zhou nodded silently to show that he understood.
Although I was extremely reluctant, I still held a "press conference" after all.
As Chen Zhou was thinking this, he saw the reporters in the audience, all raising their hands high, waiting for Chen Zhou to flip the card.
Chen Zhou looked around and found a cute-looking female reporter, and started the question-and-answer session with this female reporter.
The female reporter whose card was turned over looked excited, and obviously did not expect that she would be the first one.
She took a deep breath, various questions running through her mind.
There is only one chance, let alone the opening one.
If she didn't come up with a question that could grab tomorrow's front-page headlines, she felt she was wasting her opportunity.
"Please speak!" Chen Zhou asked again politely.
The female reporter was brought back by Chen Zhou's voice. She organized her words a little and then asked, "We know that the hailstone conjecture was proved by you recently, but before you proved it, it had existed for more than 70 years."
"In the past 70 years, countless mathematicians have studied it and tried to solve it. However, it was not proved until today. I also believe that you must have spent a lot of time and energy to finally solve this world-class problem."
"Well, I think many people, like me, want to ask you, what exactly is a conjecture? Is it really worth spending so much time and energy to prove a conjecture? What's the point?"
The female reporter's previous preparations were only for this last question.
Indeed, this problem exists in the eyes of people who do not understand mathematics.
That is, mathematical conjectures are so difficult, why do we still study them?
The result of the research is often nothing, wasting a lot of time and energy.
Wouldn't it be better to use this time and energy to study other aspects?
Moreover, even if the difficult mathematical problems are solved, it doesn’t seem to have any impact on the world, right?
On the contrary, in today's society, a mobile phone or a software can influence the world.
Chen Zhou glanced at the female reporter, his eyes fixed, and he slowly said, "Perhaps in your opinion, mathematical symbols or numbers have no meaning, but you don't know that they are the tools that promote human development."
At this point, Chen Zhou slowly glanced at the audience: "I believe you all know that Toy Story is a powerful tool for Apple to open up a new era of mobile, but what you may not know is that in order to produce Toy Story, Apple recruited a large number of mathematicians who have nothing to do with animation production."
“Why call in mathematicians?”
Chen Zhou asked.
But no reporter could answer.
At this moment, everyone's eyes in the entire auditorium were focused on Chen Zhou.
President Qiu, who was sitting back in the audience, as well as Dean Sun and Dean Zhou from the School of Mathematics and other YNU school leaders, all looked at Chen Zhou.
"Because mathematicians are the key to the success of Toy Story!" Chen Zhou said, "The production staff applied mathematical knowledge and used sophisticated mathematical formulas to create a group of animated characters that are more lifelike than hand-drawn ones."
"Therefore, mathematicians have developed new technologies using computer graphics, which is based on mathematics, or CG. The mathematical symbols and numbers used here, which you think are meaningless, include geometry, differential formulas etc."
"In the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, a lot of shots of huge waves hitting the ship were also made with CG technology. And the reason why this movie can depict the scene of turbulent waves and millions of water droplets splashing is because the Navier-Stokes equations were applied to CG technology!"
"Not only that, the search engines commonly used today were also developed using mathematical algorithms. The 4G network technology that is now emerging (in 2015) is also based on the technology of modifying and expressing complex fluctuations using the Fourier transform formula in mathematics."
"These are examples of how mathematics has a real impact on people's lives. As for ..."
Chen Zhou paused for a moment. He found that the reporters in the audience were taking notes in their notebooks.
Some reporters were so anxious that they looked around, asking what the Navier-Stokes equation was here, and asking about the content of Fourier transform there.
Chen Zhou couldn't help but smile. These reporters were quite interesting.
"Mathematical symbols and numbers have a huge impact not only in what people can see, but also in what people cannot see. They are the means for people to understand themselves, the world, and the universe."
"Newton invented calculus to study gravity."
"When Einstein created the theory of general relativity, he transformed the problem of gravity into a mathematical problem, and found that mathematical knowledge was not enough. So he found his old classmate Grossman, and asked Grossman to help him find relevant literature on Riemann."
"It was also after this experience that Einstein said that in physics, the path to deeper fundamental knowledge is connected with the most sophisticated mathematical methods."
“That’s why the mass-energy equation in Einstein’s theory of relativity is so simple and full of mathematical beauty.”
"Let's talk about Chang'e flying to the moon and Wan Hu flying to the sky. Human beings have long yearned for space. Since ancient times, people have been trying to fly into the sky. However, the key to conquering space is rocket technology."
"The breakthrough in rocket technology was the Tsiolkovsky formula. It was this formula that made it possible to use rockets for interstellar travel and launch satellites, and became the key to human conquest of space."
"Why was the former Soviet Union able to usher in the space age? Why was it able to launch the first artificial satellite? Why was it able to send the first astronaut into space?"
"It's because of the Tsiolkovsky formula!"
“As Tsiolkovsky said, the earth is the cradle of mankind, but people cannot live in the cradle forever!”
Chen Zhou's words instantly made everyone in the audience excited.
That's what mathematics is about.
This is also the charm of mathematics.
Whether it is life or dreams, mathematics is indispensable.
After looking at the people in the audience, Chen Zhou began to conclude this question.
"Back to the question itself, what is the point of spending so much time and energy studying mathematical conjectures?"
"Mathematical conjectures are a powerful driving force for the development of mathematics and an important way to create mathematical ideas and methods. I just said that Einstein created the theory of general relativity after understanding Riemann's non-Euclidean geometry. Do you know the Riemann conjecture ?"
"This is a hypothesis that has not yet been proven. But in the process of studying it, people have already unearthed many treasures. In today's mathematical literature, there are more than a thousand mathematical propositions that are based on and extended from the Riemann hypothesis. It has a profound impact on the development of mathematics."
“In fact, in the process of studying and proving various conjectures, even if we don’t talk about how important it is to the development of mathematics, this process has a catalytic effect on the development of human thinking methods, thinking depth, logical ability, etc.”
"If people only look down at their feet, they will never know the beauty of the blue sky and white clouds. This is why humans spend so much time and energy studying mathematical conjectures."
As Chen Zhou finished speaking, applause from the audience gradually rose and became more and more enthusiastic.
