At 6 a.m. on June 6, 1493, in the Bay of Palma de Mallorca in the Mediterranean, the small Galen ship "Pelican" was moored. On board are three prominent figures, King Ferdinand of Aragon, Juana of Castile and Princess of Aragon, Castile and Cardinal Mendoza of Aragon.

Isabella is gone, and now that Columbus is back for a second voyage, the nobles and merchants are eager to try, the allocation of supplies is imminent, and there is a lot of domestic and foreign affairs to deal with, how can there be time to experience science with Ferdinand.

Why is the Cardinal here? Could it be that Ferdinand was unhappy with the Church? No, during the Magdeburg hemisphere experiment, the Pope was also present to visit. The experiment to prove the existence of atmospheric pressure did not have much impact on the theoretical foundation and belief system of the Church, it was not a subversive thing, and the Pope was also very curious and naturally willing to take a look.

In fact, Mendoza was fooled, and Ferdinand put it quite high-soundingly: "It has always been believed that air has no weight and no pressure, how is this possible? The air was created by God and permeated the world, encircling everyone, and it took a lot of effort to inhale it and exhale it. In order to show his power and warning to those who bear original sin, God will give weight to the air and exert great pressure on the human body, as well as on all things in the world, to show the power and gospel of the Lord and to warn people not to forget the atonement for the rest of their lives. The air is the will of God, so it is everywhere. The air contains the power of God, and if you want to be free from its pressure, you must inhale it and be impregnated with the power and gospel of the Lord to be unharmed. If there is strong resistance, the pressure of the air will cause the barrel to break, so that the two iron balls will fit so firmly that twenty healthy horses can pull them apart, and if someone drives away the air and reintroduces it, the air will make a loud noise as a reminder and warning from God, so that the person will be frightened and devout to the Lord. As I once dreamed of God, God revealed to me in his dreams that if anyone wants to prove the power of God in a simple way, he can take a long tube, fill it with mercury, and insert it upside down, and no matter how much mercury is in the tank, the mercury in the tube will be higher than a certain vertical height of the mercury in the tank, and if it is replaced by water, the height will be more than 5 fathoms! From this, one can know the pressure of the air, that is, the atmospheric pressure, and will also fully perceive the power of the Lord. ”

Ferdinand's deception was not nonsense, the Church in later generations was accustomed to playing such tricks, and the Church had two fundamental theoretical bases for this. First, something as great and profound as the Bible cannot be taken literally. Second, all phenomena in nature are part of God's arrangement and can be answered in the Bible.

As long as we grasp these two items, what thing cannot be blamed on God? The most classic and fundamental example is that "the Big Bang was the moment when God said 'let there be light'......" is full of creation and is really in line with the purpose of the Bible, and if you look closely, the specific sentence is really in line with the scientific conclusion......

This kind of thing, people today will probably laugh at it. But in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a similar statement absolutely fascinated a large number of people.

Apparently the cardinal was one of them, and he also agreed with this statement and highly expected that the Lord's coercion was everywhere, and this fact would definitely greatly increase the piety of the common people, and the sale of indulgences might go more smoothly, if His Majesty the Pope of Rome had restrained his private life a little...... Ah, that's not what I'm supposed to think.

Later, Ferdinand followed this set of arguments, which could relieve the pressure from the Holy See, because he also needed the Pope to support Castile's sovereignty over the New World, and the treaties ratified by the Pope and concluded between the two powers were very useful in this era.

When Portugal was annexed by himself in 1517 and the Protestant movement broke out, Ferdinand had no scruples, just waiting for the Pope to ask him to support Catholicism.

Now that Ferdinand's great trick had clearly worked, the cardinal spoke expectantly: "Let us then bear witness to the power of God." ”

Of course, this is not a one-man show for three people! The rumors were released three months ago, when Ferdinand was still blasting the tech tree day and night. There were also a dozen nobles and celebrities on board, including Father Cisneros, the Duke of Medinaselli, a great nobleman who had written to introduce Columbus, and a representative of the Holy See.

There are also interested people on the shore, as well as a group of scientists with different opinions and arguing, waiting to get the latest results. Some people agree and some oppose.

———— Dividing Line————

Any policy and system must give priority to national conditions, and scientific experiments are no exception.

Spain has mercury reserves of around 700,000 tonnes and produces around 1,000 tonnes of mercury per year, making Spain the world's largest producer and exporter of mercury.

So Ferdinand's use of mercury was not distressing at all.

The mercury troughs and glass tubes were made to order from Florence, and the art of blown glassware in Rome and Florence was second to none in Europe in Italy at this time. If it is an instrument produced in the Iberian region, it may not meet the requirements of the experiment.

Fine handicraft techniques and fine techniques such as painting paints made the papacy of the Holy See, the commercial prosperity of Italy, and the foundation for the magnificent artistic creation of the Renaissance. For example, the Mona Lisa uses expensive paints containing manganese oxide.

The parts of an aircraft and the materials of an experiment can show the resources, industry, and technological heritage of the countries and regions behind it.

Mediterranean sea level, which is the standard zero meter elevation. At this time, the hull is stable, the sea is calm, and the sky is clear.

Princess Juana, acting as an assistant, carefully pushed the mercury tank into the middle of the horizontal workbench, which contained 3/4 of the tank's mercury.

Wearing improvised gloves, Ferdinand carefully scooped (otherwise it would be too slow to follow modern regulations) mercury and slowly packed it into a custom-made long glass tube that was precisely measured up to 6 feet in length. The use of feet is to accurately grasp the length, which is cheaper for the British.

Once filled, plug the mouth of the bottle and slowly insert the glass tube vertically into the mercury tank.

Everyone looked intently, the specific gravity of mercury, everyone wanted to see clearly, how high the "God's coercion" can support the column of mercury?

The mercury column drops and the liquid level in the tank rises.

Juana took three measurements with a ruler, approaching 30 inches, with an accuracy of about 29.9 inches (760 cm).

The onlookers let out an exclamation of exclamation, in such a small area, God's coercion could hold up such a high column of mercury! This weighs ......

Juana followed Ferdinand's instructions and demonstrations, erecting a reticle at the location of the ruler, and then Ferdinand tilted the glass tube to the left and right, and the mercury column remained at the same vertical height.

"Now the results are clear...... Air has the weight that God has given it, and because it is very light on the earth and around us, through the air, God exerts great power and exerts great power to exert pressure on all things in the world! ”

In fact, the Torricelli experiment was earlier than the Magdeburg hemispheric experiment, which was enough to prove the existence of atmospheric pressure, but the Torricelli experiment was not universally recognized because it did not have an earth-shattering spectacle after all.

The mayor of Magdeburg made up his mind because he wanted justice for Torricelli.

The magnificence of Ferdinand's position, the presence of the cardinals, the witnesses of the papal delegates, the onlookers of the nobles and commoners, and the observation of the scientists, even if the scene was not so earth-shattering, was enough to be a foregone conclusion, because it was a fact.

However, there is a flaw in this experiment, for some people with incorrigible brains, there is such a possibility that the mercury column is also a slender cylinder, so it may have stayed there trembling on its own, and then it happened that the mercury did not fall when it was shaken......

In order to refute this mindless statement and make it not affect others, it is only necessary to add a small step to close it. Ferdinand then smashed the top half of the glass tube with a small hammer, and the mercury flowed back into the trough.

Now it's absolutely rigorous.

Cardinals and papal representatives clapped their hands in celebration with excitement and gave an impassioned speech.

At the same time, after Ferdinand had given a word or two, Juana took out two long glass tubes, and achieved the same effect herself, the two glass tubes were juxtaposed, and theoretically as long as the amount of mercury was enough, it could support tens of millions of mercury columns.

People are amazed and at the same time feel that God's power is amazing, and they are not crushed by the pressure on themselves?

But didn't they say it? Inhale air to counteract it. Even if you hold your breath, there is air in your body, and it seems that God is not enough to see it with himself for a few mistresses and illegitimate children.

In any case, it seems that there is weight in air, and it seems that old Mr. Aristotle should rediscover the power of the Lord, and God should teach him in heaven.