One morning a few days later, Joseph put on his formal suit again, and Napoleon, dressed in military uniform, got into a light two-wheeled carriage to take part in the light-speed measurement experiment that will be carried out tonight at the Château de Burton, outside Paris.

Burton Castle is the property of the Orleans family and is a castle built on top of a hill. The castle is said to have been built as a military fortress in the 12th century, but today it has long since lost its military value. When the castle was first built, it was almost completely uninhabitable in order to strengthen its defenses. So today the castle is almost in a semi-abandoned state. However, it is a good place for experiments, it is far from the city, there are few people nearby, and there is almost no light pollution. On the top of the high castle, you can clearly see the reflection of the fire from a mirror about four or five miles (one thousand miles is about four kilometers) away. This is crucial for both evening experiments.

However, the place was a bit remote, a bit far from Paris, and no public carriage would get there, so Joseph rented a light two-wheeled carriage to get there.

The light carriage traveled all morning until about three o'clock in the afternoon, when it reached the vicinity of Burton Castle. Underneath the hill where the castle is located, there is a manor house of the Orleans family, and everyone who came to participate in the experiment stayed in this manor. The wagon stopped at the gate of the manor. Then a waiter came up to inquire about it. Joseph identified himself to the attendants, and in a short time the wrought-iron gates of the manor were opened, and the light carriage drove along the stone-paved road into the manor, stopping in front of a large house with a distinctly baroque style. An attendant came up and opened the door, and Joseph and Napoleon came down from it, and a messenger in a wig led them in.

The waiter led them through the hall to the small garden at the back, where there was a small glass greenhouse. This is nothing in later generations, but in this era, it is not something that ordinary people can afford. At this time, several people were sitting inside drinking tea while watching the roses blooming inside. Joseph walked over, and he noticed that Condorcet, Lavoisier, Laplace, Monge, they were all there. But he didn't see the master, Duke Charlie.

"Ah, Joseph, come here, come here......" Lavoisier beckoned to Joseph as soon as he saw him. Joseph stepped forward, greeted them one by one, and thanked Monge and Laplace for their recommendation. Of course, this thank you to Napoleon meant to thank them for recommending his papers.

Then Joseph introduced his brother to them: "This is my brother Napoleon. He is now a student at the Paris Military Academy. He was also interested in science, so I brought him over to open his eyes. By the way, why didn't you see His Royal Highness the Duke? ”

"His Royal Highness the Duke was also there. Not long ago, however, he was summoned by His Majesty the King...... I don't know what it is. Lavoisier said, "But His Royal Highness the Duke has asked his butler, Mr. Weir, to stay here to assist us, and now everything is ready, just waiting for the evening." ”

During these days, the men of the Academy of Sciences, with the cooperation of the Orleans family, accurately determined the straight-line distance from the watchtower at Burtonburg to the top of the two nameless hills nearby. To ensure visibility, they also cut down all the trees on the top of the two nameless hills, which were also the property of the Orleans family anyway.

Now everything is ready, all it takes is to get dark. At this time, everyone had nothing to do, so they discussed various scientific issues together. Monge and Laplace got together to discuss the potential function of the gravitational component of a celestial body to any other mass. Napoleon also listened, but only listened. Unlike Joseph, he can interject from time to time.

At this time, the Orleans family came to invite everyone to dinner. Because the experiment was about to take place, dinner was actually a working meal, and by the standards of the Orleans family, it was not hearty at all. But even so, many things were eaten by Joseph and Napoleon for the first time. For example, truffle slices sandwiched between bread smeared with foie gras, and other things that Joseph didn't even know what they were.

After eating, everyone got into the carriage again and drove to the castle not far away. The carriage winded up the winding road, and in a short time it reached the bottom of the castle.

Everyone got out of the carriage, and by this time, the sun in the west was approaching the horizon, and it was getting bigger and redder.

The servants lit the lanterns and led the men of the Academy into the castle.

Castles and other buildings generally have very thick stone walls and very small, often inward, windows to ensure their defense. Therefore, the ventilation and lighting of this kind of building will be very poor, not to mention that it is already evening, even at noon, and the castle is so dark that it needs to be lit. Therefore, except in times of war, the nobles are rarely willing to live in castles. Nowadays, because of the progress of artillery, these castles no longer have military significance, and the nobles naturally do not live here, and even refuse to pay for continuing to take care of them, so these castles are naturally generally dilapidated. The eerie castles, which need to be lit even during the day, and the dilapidated and uninhabited, have turned these castles into the stage of ghost stories one after another. Including the ancient castle they entered now, in fact, it also has the legend of "the ghost of the ancient castle".

Joseph took Napoleon with him and followed a waiter with a horse lantern up the winding stone steps, and the waiter, while illuminating the steps with a horse lantern, reminded him in particular: "Sir, the castle is very damp, and these stone steps are mossy and slippery, so be careful when going up." ”

"Thanks, we'll take care of it." Joseph replied, looking down at the stone steps at his feet.

Soon they came to the lookout at the top of the castle. It is a small platform about twenty meters long. At one end of this small platform, there is a firewood pile with wood doused with whale oil. As soon as the brazier is lit, it emits a brighter light than a normal flame. In dark conditions, the light of this fire can be clearly seen even in the Nine Dharmas and beyond. At the other end of the platform, there is a set of eight-sided mirrors that can be rotated.

There is also a telescope on the platform, and when you look through the telescope, you can see that a set of reflectors has been installed on the top of the hill over there.

"Have these mirrors been tuned?" Joseph asked.

"It's all debugged. Light can be accurately reflected onto the other side of the eight-sided mirror. Monge replied in a deep voice.

The sun was getting lower and lower, and finally it sank below the horizon. Only a little lilac afterglow was left in the western sky. One star after another appeared in the darkening sky, and in a few moments the sky was dotted with jewel-like stars.

Seeing that it was already dark enough, Lavoisier said, "Alright, we should be able to start." ”

A waiter lit a large fire with a torch in his hand, and a firework rose from the top of the hill over there. This is to show them that they can clearly see the fire from the top of the hill over there.

After receiving this response, everyone turned their attention to the other side of the eight-sided mirror. Because according to the experimental setup, the fire shines from one side of the rotating octahedral mirror to the mirror on the other hill, and then reflects back again. If the octamerics rotate exactly one of the mirror angles during this time, then the reflected light can be seen from the other side of the octaves.

There was no reflection in that direction. The eight-sided mirror turned faster and faster, but there was still no fire.

"Faster, faster." Joseph stared at the swirling eight-sided mirror.

The speed of the eight-sided mirror continued to spend, and finally, the flickering fire began to flicker on the side that everyone was staring at.

"Steady, steady, good, okay! Quick, record the rpm! Monge shouted.

An assistant quickly recorded the rotational speed.

As soon as the data came out, Joseph, Laplace, and Monge immediately surrounded them. By the light of the fire, he began to calculate. Laplace came up with the answer first, then Monge also figured it out, and as for Joseph, when they were all done, Joseph's calculation was only about two-thirds complete.

"Haha, Joseph, your computing skills are not good enough, you are so slow." Monge burst out laughing.

Napoleon also had a gloating smile on his face. Looking into his eyes, Joseph knew that this guy was thinking, "My stupid brother, you have been despised by others at times." ”

"Such complex calculations, in my last life, were solved by hitting a carriage return, who would use the manual way? It's not good that I can have this kind of speed, but if I had someone else, I might not have even finished half of what I did. Joseph thought so, and replied with a wry smile: "My calculations are not very good, and the speed is not always fast, and if I speed up a little, I will make a mistake." I can't help it. ”

The people next to him laughed together.

In the midst of laughter, Joseph also completed his calculations. The three of them compared the results of the calculations, and they were basically the same. Joseph silently converted this number into kilometers, and concluded that the speed of light was very close to that measured by later generations.

"So fast?" Laplace muttered, "If light is indeed a wave, what strange properties should the ether have?" It's unimaginable! But what if light is a particle, how do you explain the double-slit interference and the Bonaparte spot......"

"Let's be a little more bold, what if the medium of light is not some kind of substance as we usually think, but space itself?" Napoleon on one side said suddenly.

"The space itself? Is light actually a fluctuation of space? Condorcet immediately spoke, "Ah, Napoleon, you are very philosophically gifted. However, if this idea is a scientific conjecture, it is clear that there is not enough evidence. Science needs evidence, like your brother's conjecture, with at least one set of mathematical models to back it up. But this view is really ...... Unfortunately, we don't have any research methods available to us about the space itself. ”

And Napoleon's words also startled Joseph. Of course, he knew that although the light aether or anything else did not exist, the light was not a fluctuation of space. Space can indeed have fluctuations, but these fluctuations are not light, but gravitational waves.

"This guy, this guy is a little imaginative. Cultivate him seriously, can you cultivate him crookedly, and finally become the emperor of physics? Joseph couldn't help but think.