"Sometimes it's really fast." Ma Whistle thought for a moment.

"It's unbelievable that in such a short amount of time, you've been able to write a near-perfect paper." Thomson read it carefully and couldn't help but sigh again.

"Thank you for putting my name first, and frankly, after reading your paper, I'm a little ashamed......"

After a pause, he hesitated again: "I feel that even without the discussion just now, you can establish a perfect thermodynamic temperature scale on your own. ”

Ma Whistle: "Professor Thomson, you have inspired me, not only just now, but also by the results of your research over the past few years, just like Joule, Carnot, and Renford. ”

"In contrast, writing this paper was more like drudgery. Ninety-nine percent perspiration and one percent inspiration come from the world's achievements, but one percent inspiration is often more important. ”

Thomson's expression moved slightly, as if he had reminisced about what he said, and then smiled: "Ninety-nine percent sweat and one percent inspiration...... I love this quote! ”

"Today's work is over. Come and sit at my house, Mr. Whistle, I think we have a lot to talk about the thermodynamics of the nascent. ”

Whistle: "Very willingly." ”

The two left the University of Glasgow and went to Thomson's house.

Ma Whistle meets Thomson's parents, his father to be exact, and Thomson's mother has died more than a decade ago.

Thomson Sr. was a knowledgeable and kind-hearted old professor of mathematics.

Obviously, Thomson was able to grow into a high-profile genius because of his talent on the one hand, and his father's guidance on the other.

In the eyes of Ma Whistle, an education practitioner, the latter is more important.

Professional education can even allow gorillas to learn sign language and communicate with humans, not to mention turning ordinary people into geniuses.

Of course, the reverse is also true - stupid education can turn geniuses into ordinary people, and even turn people into gorillas.

Thomson's father was naturally surprised and disgusted by the arrival of the horse whistle at first.

But because of the common language of mathematics and physics, Thomson Sr. soon had the same pleasant conversation with the horse whistle as his son, leaving behind the second-hand prejudices that had been obtained from public opinion.

Ma Whistle talked a lot with the father and son, both very serious about mathematics and physics, and some less serious.

"What do you think is the age of the sun?" Thomson asked the whimsical-sounding question at the dinner table.

"Maybe only God knows." Old Thomson said casually, eating a loaf of bread.

Thomson adds: "After reading the Joule and Horse Whistle papers, I have recently thought about this question, and I think that the energy that the sun burns may be converted from the potential energy of gravity. ”

Thomson Sr.: "Why can't it be chemical combustion?" ”

Thomson blurted out: "It can't be chemical combustion, if the sun is coal-burning, it will burn out in thousands of years at most." ”

"The gravitational potential energy at the solar scale is indeed much larger than the chemical energy." Ma Whistle said.

Thomson's eyes lit up: "You also think that the energy of the sun comes from potential energy?" ”

The horse whistle was silent for two seconds.

Of course, the sun's energy comes from nuclear energy, but at this time no one knew anything about nuclear energy.

The largest source of energy scientists can think of is the gravitational pull of the sun, which is really huge, at least much stronger than burning coal — many people really think that the sun burns coal.

But this is still a grossly underestimated estimate compared to nuclear power.

"I think the sun has other ways of getting energy." Ma Whistle said.

"In what way?"

Ma Whistle shook his head: "I don't know, it's just an intuition." I've estimated that the sun's gravitational potential energy can last for tens of millions of years, but I feel like this time is a bit short, so I suspect that the sun has any other way of getting energy that we don't know about. ”

"Is tens of millions of years short?" Thomson Sr. laughed and said, "Many people are only 6,000 years old for the sun, especially people in the church. ”

Ma Whistle: "I've read some articles about geology, and some geologists estimate that the age of the earth could be hundreds of millions of years. The sun should be older than the Earth, at least hundreds of millions of years old, if not billions of years. ”

"Of course, this is more of my wishful thinking." He changed his words, "Science should talk about evidence, and as much evidence as there is, it will say as many judgments as there are." ”

After a pause, the whistle added, "Therefore, William, I agree with your theory. This is a plausible explanation – the energy of the sun is derived from gravitational potential energy. ”

Thomson Sr.: "Yes, the evidence is the most important thing. ”

Thomson thought for a moment: "Horse whistle, are you still calculating the estimated age of the sun?" ”

Ma Whistle: "It's gone, it's just a few random calculations on the waste paper, maybe it's wrong." ”

He didn't even count.

He only knows a little about this history of science, which is how scientists first estimated the age of the sun.

If he remembers correctly, Kelvin also played an important role in this history.

Now it seems that this is the case, and Thomson has shown a keen interest in the issue.

"I think we should take a hard look at this and speculate on how the sun gets its energy, and how old it is most likely." Thomson said.

Ma Whistle nodded: "Although I don't think this will lead to the truth. But admittedly, it's an interesting question. ”

For a period of time, estimating the age of the sun became his and Thomson's main job.

They have come up with several models, and the calculated age of the sun has changed from 20 million years at the beginning to 500 million years at the end.

The main reason for such a span is that Ma Whistle repeatedly emphasized that "the sun should be older", and after Thomson proposed the model, he repeatedly modified and supplemented the hypothetical premise to extend the life of the theoretical sun.

Despite this, after continuing to 500 million years, the two still can't continue.

"It can't be any older." Thomson took the manuscript and said with a frown, "We have fully considered the gravitational force and the energy of meteorites, and 500 million years is the limit, which should be the maximum value of the age of the sun." ”

Horse Whistle nodded: "Okay, but I still think the sun should be a little older......"

“……”

After a while, he said, "Let's publish a few models and the results." ”

"Okay." Thomson nodded.

The two of them put together the process of assumptions and calculations into a thesis, and once again the whistle put Thomson's name in front of himself.

Looking at the two names in the author's column, Thomson was silent for a moment.

Whistle: "What? ”

Thomson said slowly: "I have not really agreed that humility is a virtue...... Until I met someone who was truly humble. ”