Chapter 409: A High Viscosity Fluid Coefficient
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The food was on the table.
The family sat around the table and began to eat dinner.
After dinner, Lu Zhou helped his parents clean up the table.
Originally, he wanted to help his parents with the dishes, but his mother wouldn’t let him. Therefore, Old Lu told Lu Zhou to stay in the living room.
The kitchen wasn’t big enough for three people.
Lu Zhou didn’t insist. Instead, he went to sit in the living room and watch TV.
Xiao Tong lay on the sofa next to him, and she was playing on her phone. Suddenly, she looked at her brother and asked, “Bro, can you win the n.o.bel Prize this year?”
When Lu Zhou heard her question, he smiled and said, “I don’t know, but some people told me that they’d recommend me to the n.o.bel Committee.”
Xiao Tong tilted her head and said, “Who?”
“Gerhard Ertl, a German guy… You don’t know him.”
During the conference at Germany, the n.o.bel Prize winner told Lu Zhou that he would write recommendation letters to the n.o.bel Committee until Lu Zhou won a prize.
Lu Zhou was pretty excited at that time, but now, he realized it was nothing to be excited about.
It wasn’t uncommon to chase after a n.o.bel Prize for decades, especially in theoretical fields. There were only a handful of cases where the n.o.bel Prize was given right after the research results came out. Winning the first-level State Natural Science Award had used up all of Lu Zhou’s luck. Furthermore, there was still a Fields Medal in August waiting for him.
Winning the n.o.bel Prize might take a while.
Xiao Tong murmured, “You’re insane…”
Lu Zhou smiled. “Work hard. Since you are studying economics, maybe you can also win a n.o.bel Prize someday.”
Xiao Tong muttered, “No way, my mathematics isn’t that good…”
The n.o.bel Prize in Economics was a prize for mathematicians. This was a well-known piece of information. For economics, most of its n.o.bel Prize winners had a mathematics background or at least a high level of literacy in mathematics.
In 1969, the first n.o.bel Prize in Economics was given to Professor Frisch and Professor Tinbergen. The former was a mathematician while the latter was a physicist. It was obvious that the n.o.bel Committee favored people in quant.i.tative fields. The reason why these two won the award was that mathematics and physics were heavily related to “econometrics”.
Lu Zhou smiled as he said, “That’s not a good excuse. Your brother is right here, so you shouldn’t worry that mathematics would be a problem.”
Xiao Tong stopped her game and threw her phone aside. She then sat crossed-legged on the sofa and said, “Brother, does this mean that you’re going to carry me?”
Lu Zhou smiled. “I can carry you, but you need to at least rank up to Diamond in Honor of Kings first. I can’t carry you if you don’t carry yourself. It’s not fun if I have to do everything.”
Lu Zhou wasn’t very interested in the n.o.bel Prize in Economics. After all, his patents had already brought him financial freedom, and he didn’t have to worry about money.
However, if Xiao Tong was interested in economics, Lu Zhou wouldn’t mind helping her.
Of course, Xiao Tong had to reach a level that was worthy of his help first.
No academic inst.i.tution would recognize her contribution if she only did miscellaneous work and wrote her name on the thesis.
“… Oh, okay, I will work hard.” Xiao Tong sighed and looked at her phone. After a while, she couldn’t handle the temptation anymore, and she quickly started another game.
Lu Zhou smiled and didn’t say anything.
She was on her holiday right now, so there was nothing wrong with relaxing. There wouldn’t be any point for her to start studying now. What she needed was discipline, not motivation.
As for the n.o.bel Prize, that actually wasn’t important.
Lu Zhou just hoped that she could have a goal during her university years so that she would know what to do instead of wasting four years of her life.
…
Family Lu had never stuck couplet papers on their front door before.
This was their first time, and therefore, it attracted the curiosity of many neighbors.
Old Lu loved to brag, and whenever people asked about the couplet, he would tell them that an academician wrote it for his son, thus making everyone envious.
Some people even began to think… Even though the couplet was written by an academician, wasn’t Old Lu’s son a lot stronger than the academician?
Old Lu’s son was a scientist that went on national television and won that Swedish prize.
Therefore, many people were interested in Lu Zhou’s luck.
Whenever Old Lu would go to the office, his colleagues and even his bosses would ask him for Lu Zhou’s couplet. Not just that, but some people even began to knock on Old Lu’s door and give him gifts.
They all wanted a couplet paper from a big name scientist.
After all, there wasn’t a scholar more knowledgeable than Lu Zhou in the entire city.
If they could obtain a couplet paper from the big scientist, they might bring some of that “luck” into their own homes. This was especially valuable for families that had children who were about to do the college entrance examination.
Old Lu was an easy going guy, and he wanted to please everyone.
He agreed to all of the couplet paper requests.
However, Lu Zhou was the one that had to suffer…
When Lu Zhou heard his dad’s requests, he said, “Dad, why are you bragging! I’ve never even held a couplet brush before, how do you expect me to write it?”
Old Lu said, “Your writing is pretty good, right? Someone even gave you a brush, so just write whatever.”
He seemed to realize the problem, but he decided to let his son deal with it.
In his mind, if his son could solve the Goldbach’s conjecture, then writing a few words should be a piece of cake.
Should be…
Lu Zhou said, “Is a brush the same as a pen?”
Old Lu said, “Don’t worry about it and just write something. It doesn’t matter as long as you wrote it yourself.”
Lu Zhou had to practice writing with a brush.
Perhaps it was because Lu Zhou’s handwriting was good, or perhaps it was because Lu Zhou was naturally talented, but although it was a bit difficult in the beginning, Lu Zhou managed to get the hang of it after practicing for a while.
Lu Zhou found out that when he was immersed in writing, his entire body calmed down.
It was almost like the knot in his heart was being untied.
He hadn’t felt like this in a long time…
Lu Zhou treated the writing as a mission.
He even began to enjoy it.
Lu Zhou finally finished writing all of the couplets for his father a week before the Chinese New Year.
He suddenly realized that the couplet paper that Academician Lu gave him was missing a third line.
Although not having a third line didn’t matter, Lu Zhou felt like something was missing.
He twirled the brush in the ink.
Suddenly, Lu Zhou frowned.
“Xiao Tong.”
“What, bro?” Xiao Tong was playing Honor of Kings on the sofa, and she looked at Lu Zhou and said, “I have to tell you first, I don’t know how to write couplets.”
“I didn’t ask you to help me.” Lu Zhou stared at the ink and stopped writing. He then asked, “Don’t you think ink is like fluid?”
A type of fluid with a high viscosity coefficient.
Xiao Tong said, “Fluid?”
Lu Zhou: “Yeah.”
Xiao Tong looked at the ink first. She then looked at Lu Zhou.
She then said hesitantly, “Brother.”
Lu Zhou: “Yeah?”
Xiao Tong said in a serious manner, “Are you r.e.t.a.r.ded?”
Lu Zhou: “… F*ck off!”
Lu Zhou threw the brush aside. Without wasting any time, he went into his room. He then quickly found some draft paper.
Once he had the paper with him, he sat in front of his desk and began to think.
Inspiration would always come at unexpected times, making it difficult to capture.
Just now, Lu Zhou suddenly had an idea in his mind.
However, the idea was too abstract, and it nearly slipped away from his mind.
What Lu Zhou had to do now was to take the abstract idea and transform it into written mathematics…