It is also an international academic conference held in Italy, but this time the International Congress of Mathematicians in Bologna is much more open than last year's Como conference in Milan Como.

At the time of the Como conference, between the Como train station and the venue next to Lake Como, there is a car from the conference organizer to pick up and drop off the whole route.

And this time in Bologna, Chen Muwu got off the train from the Bologna railway station and had to go from the train station to the University of Bologna by himself.

The reason for the very different attitudes towards the participants at the two international conferences held in Italy may be that the number of participants was too exaggerated.

In Como, there were at most about a hundred people, but in Bologna, Italy, more than 1,100 mathematicians came from all over the world.

It wasn't enough to spend money to go to the venue, so Chen Muwu paid for it himself and paid the conference registration fee of 50 Italian lira.

Although this money was converted into pounds, it was less than eleven shillings, but it still made Chen Muwu a little unhappy.

He received an invitation from the conference organizer, but the first thing he did when he arrived at the conference site was to take money out of his pocket?

However, this conference registration fee is honestly quite worth the money.

After paying the money, Chen Muwu received a conference card printed with full membership, and with this conference card, he had the right to give speeches, newsletters, and proposals during the meetings of the mathematicians' conference.

However, Chen Muwu should not have used this right, because he came to Italy to attend the meeting on a temporary basis, and he did not have time to prepare his own speech.

But in addition to giving speeches, Chen Muwu, who has a conference card, can also participate in discussions and votes, attend opening and closing ceremonies, conference celebrations, tours organized by conference organizers and visit places of interest near Bologna.

With the conference card, Chen Muwu also has free access to museums and galleries in Bologna and Tuscany, as well as free access to the proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians.

In addition, after the conference, if Chen Muwu wants to travel in Italy, then he can buy train tickets or ferry tickets with Italian railway companies and shipping companies, and stay and dine in hotels and restaurants in Italy, and he can also get certain discounts.

In addition to all of these benefits, there is another condition that is completely unexpected.

The Sulian government approached the International Mathematical Union and promised that as long as they participated in the International Congress of Mathematicians and obtained the conference card worth 50 Italian lira, they could obtain a visa issued by the Sulian consular office and a residence permit in Sulian.

It is estimated that Su Lian came to such a show, just to attract more scientific talents, to visit Su Lian, and give a lecture by the way.

But this visa is of little use to Chen Muwu.

Because with his status as an academician of the Sulian Academy of Sciences, it should be very simple to enter Sulian.

After paying the money, Chen Muwu not only received the conference card of the International Congress of Mathematicians, but also received a thick conference guide.

The program of the meeting is printed on the guide, and the specific location of the plenary session and the individual sessions is indicated.

It was the first time for Chen Muwu to participate in an international mathematics conference, and he did not expect that the conference would be subdivided into seven sub-venues, namely:

arithmetic, algebra and analysis;

Geometry;

mechanics, astronomy, geodesy, geophysics, mathematical physics and theoretical physics;

statistics, mathematical economics, probability theory and actuarial science;

Applied Mathematics for Engineering and Industry;

Elementary Mathematics, Mathematics Teaching, and Mathematical Logic;

and the history of philosophy and mathematics.

The first, second, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh sub-venues can be understood by Chen Muwu, because these things are more or less related to mathematics.

But he didn't expect that the International Congress of Mathematicians would divide a separate third session for physics.

Of course, it is not appropriate to say that these contents are exclusive to physics.

In the eyes of mathematicians, mechanics is closely related to mathematics, and the earliest Newton invented calculus, a mathematical calculation method, on the basis of mechanics.

After the establishment of the new China, there was no Department of Mathematics for a period of time, but was collectively called the "Department of Mathematical Mechanics", which should be the Department of Mathematical Mechanics of the University of Mathematics and Mechanics in Sulian.

The same is true of astronomy, which is reluctant to admit that astronomy is a branch of physics, and astronomers cannot win the Nobel Prize in Physics.

But astronomy, which "grandma doesn't hurt, uncle doesn't love" in physics, has become a sweet spot in mathematics, and has always been regarded as their own forbidden by mathematicians.

It is considered a natural thing for a top mathematics student like Eddington, who graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge University, to enter the observatory to study astronomy.

The same is true of other fields such as geodesy, geophysics, mathematical physics and theoretical physics.

In the eyes of mathematicians, physics is just a discipline of experiments, from Torricelli measuring atmospheric pressure, to Voltaic studying batteries, to those in the Cavendish laboratory studying atoms, electrons, and nuclei.

The rest of the things that can be calculated without hands-on experiments, just a piece of paper and a pen, plus a pipe and a bag of tobacco, are math.

Even in the opening speech of this year's International Congress of Mathematicians, Chen Muwu heard the following speech from Italy's Minister of Public Education, G. Belluzo:

“…… The great Maxwell had already shown the role of mathematics in the minds of geniuses, as he came up with his formulas, and physics came later.

"It is mathematics that indicates to astronomers the existence and location of new planets in the solar system.

"It is mathematics that makes it possible to calculate the infinitely large distances of planetary systems (expressed in light-years) and the infinitesimal distances of atomic systems (expressed in fractions of millionths of a millimeter).

"It is mathematics that makes it possible to calculate the mass of stars thousands of light-years away from Earth, as well as the mass of electrons that form atomic systems.

“……”

Belluzo's remarks further confirmed the conjecture in Chen Muwu's brain.

As long as you don't do hands-on experiments, it's all math.

Fortunately, after entering the twenties of the twentieth century, the Nobel Prize judges of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences began to get lost, and awarded the physics prize to two theoretical physicists, Einstein and Bohr, for two consecutive years, before the ownership of theoretical physics was re-seized from the side of physics.

With the blessing of the Nobel Prize in Physics, people will mention Albert Einstein as a well-known physicist, not a well-known mathematician.

Belluzo, who was on stage, continued: "...... Once the hypothesis that the mass of an object is related to its speed and the constancy of the speed of light was established, it was mathematics that allowed us to create the theory of relativity and arrive at this surprisingly unexpected new conclusion that the universe is expanding. ”

Well?

He gave this example, why did it sound so familiar to Chen Muwu's ears?

The expansion of the universe seems to have been brought up by itself, right?

Chen Muwu is not a special guest, he is just one of the members who received the invitation to the conference and came to Italy to play soy sauce single-handedly.

Therefore, in the opening speech on the morning of September 3, Chen Muwu sat in the back row of the lecture hall of the University of Bologna, and there were people he did not know and did not know.

It is estimated that Belluzo also regarded Chen Muwu's expansion of the universe as a mathematical discovery, so he gave this example in his discourse.

The organizing committee of the conference sent Chen Muwu an invitation to the conference, which may be similar to Belluzo's idea, right?

In the lecture hall of the University of Bologna, Chen Muwu experienced another lengthy speech at the opening ceremony of the conference.

In addition to the Minister of Public Education, who represents the head of the Italian government, Chen Muwu also heard the opening speeches of senior officials of the province of Bologna, the mayor of the city of Bologna, the cardinal of the diocese of Bologna, the rector of the University of Bologna, and the president of the International Congress of Mathematicians.

In their speeches, many of them thanked Prince Adalberto, Duke of Bergamo, who came to the meeting on behalf of the King of Italy, and then used many sentences to advocate the "new policy" implemented by the Italian Prime Minister in Italy after he came to power, turning a meeting of mathematicians into a political rally.

This made Chen Muwu a little disgusted, he had only been away from Italy for a year, and he didn't expect the political atmosphere in Italy to become so fanatical.

All of them gave their presentations in Italian, and then two specially assigned interpreters translated their speeches into English and German, simultaneously to the mathematicians in the different languages in the room.

So a person's speech time is actually three times the time of his manuscript.

In the morning, Chen Muwu didn't do anything else except listen to the speech.

This made Chen Muwu regret it very much, and he even began to complain that the Italian railway company was rarely on time.

If he had taken the train a few hours later than the timetable had been, he would not have arrived at the venue before the opening ceremony and listened to a boring and condescending written speech for hours.

Perhaps the organizers of the conference also knew that it seemed inappropriate to let everyone hear all the political speeches, so at the opening ceremony on the morning of September 3, it was the mathematician's turn to give the last speech.

After a lapse of eight years, Professor Hilbert, a German mathematician and director of the Institute of Mathematics at the University of Göttingen, finally returned to the international stage of mathematics, and gave a lecture entitled "Problems of Basic Mathematics" on the podium set up in the auditorium of the University of Bologna.

Chen Muwu did not go back to London directly from Stockholm this time, but first came to Bologna, Italy, to participate in this year's International Congress of Mathematicians, a large part of which was because he wanted to meet Professor Hilbert.

Although Chen Muwu single-handedly shattered Hilbert's illusion of wanting to build a mathematical edifice, His Excellency did not hold a grudge, but sent his disciple von Neumann to Cambridge University a few years ago to invite Chen Muwu to visit the University of Göttingen if he had time.

Chen Muwu thought that if he found time to go to the University of Göttingen alone, this matter would not seem to be easy to achieve.

You said that they all went to Germany and went to Göttingen, so did Berlin go or not?

Berlin is gone, Munich is gone?

If the time went back a few years earlier, Chen Muwu really had plans to go to Germany.

But as his power grew, the atmosphere in Germany became tense.

Those who know him Chen Muwu know that he is an internationally renowned physicist.

But if someone who doesn't know him Chen Muwu, walking on the street, he is likely to stretch out his fist and punch this black-haired, yellow-skinned, black-eyed Chen Muwu.

Although when he was at Cambridge University, he once learned some self-defense boxing with Ye Gongchao.

But after all, "two fists are hard to beat four hands, and tigers can't stand up to wolves", Chen Muwu will never do stupid things that put his life in danger.

Hilbert quickly finished reading the last word of the speech he had prepared, and the closing ceremony of the morning ended.

Many of the people in the audience chose to leave the venue and go to the restaurant to eat.

But there were also many who chose to stay, waiting for Hilbert to step down from the podium and finish checking in with the greatest mathematician in their minds.

Chen Muwu also mingled in the crowd, thinking about saying hello to Professor Hilbert.

Because according to the conference schedule he received from the organizers at the time of admission, Hilbert was the only public speaker at this conference.

If he misses the opportunity to say hello to Hilbert today, Chen Muwu doesn't know which day he will have to wait until he can meet Hilbert again.

Chen Muwu did not take the initiative to move forward like the others, but kept at the end of the line, waiting for the people asking for autographs and group photos to disperse.

The people around Hilbert gradually dispersed, and Chen Muwu finally had a chance to step forward.

He held out his right hand: "Hello Professor Hilbert, I'm ......"

"Dr. Chen! I know you! I often see your photos in the newspapers! Unexpectedly, you also came to Bologna, Italy, to attend the International Congress of Mathematicians. ”

Hilbert also stretched out his right hand, and the hands of the two men clasped tightly together.

Chen Muwu didn't expect Hilbert to recognize himself.

The others next to him were equally amazed by Hilbert's performance.

Who is this person?

Why did the math titan show such enthusiasm for him?

Dr. Chen?

Some people began to savor for themselves what Hilbert had just said.

"Chen Muwu! He is Dr. Muwu Chen from the University of Cambridge! ”

(End of chapter)