Who is kelvin who never gives up?

Kelvin came from a Scottish family of sworn Christians who fled the country because of religious oppression. 10 lost his mother. My father is a professor of natural philosophy at Glasgow University. He provided his six children with a set of educational methods aimed at protecting their minds and improving their intelligence. The educational model he designed has both breadth and depth. Almost from infancy, when children grow up, they will form friendship with the vast ideological world. They are attracted by the principles of geology and astronomy, and plants are their friends when they play. When they sat around the table, they looked at the toy globe on the table in surprise; They dream of traveling to the farthest place on earth. Then their eyes turned to another bigger sphere. This is the celestial globe that their father bought for them-it tells the epic of celestial bodies, and the earth is just a small syllable in this great epic.

Kelvin is the youngest of the brothers, but his imagination is the most agile. He found himself completely fascinated by the story of these two balls. Although he is still young, he is determined to accept the challenge and find out the mystery of the story. When he was only 16 years old, he wrote the eleventh commandment in his diary. Just as the Ten Commandments are the call of religion to his conscience, the Eleventh Commandment is the call of Kelvin's rational mind:

Where science leads, it will climb endlessly;

Go ahead, measure the earth, measure the air and record the tides;

Indicate the orbit of the planet, correct the zodiac, and let the sun obey your laws.

The first modern laboratory was born in the wine cellar.

Kelvin's intelligence matured rapidly. He entered Cambridge University at the age of 17. At the age of 18, he wrote an outstanding paper on thermodynamics and published many articles in Cambridge Journal of Mathematics. When he graduated, he met some first-class physicists in France and Britain and gave them valuable research suggestions. At the age of 22, he was appointed as a professor at Glasgow University.

Moderate Scottish colleagues in the university are a little impatient with kelvin's enterprising spirit. As soon as Kelvin was selected to take the glorious position that many white-haired opponents longed for, he decided to carry out a revolution in the physics department of Glasgow. He found some old timers and applied for a room for him to do experiments outside the classroom. This arrogance is unheard of by them. For years, thrifty Scottish professors have been content to squeeze all the experiments into the classroom. How can this newly promoted young man claim to own a house?

However, their curiosity overcame their antipathy. "If you must, you can take the cellar. We just need to move those barrels."

In this way, the first modern laboratory in Britain was born in a wine cellar.

A house with a thinking tower.

Young kelvin's work is like a tornado. He is the embodiment of his own dynamic theory. He selected 30 students from 90 students in his class and formed a volunteer team. He urged them to work as soon as possible. His work accumulated so quickly that he found that he needed more space-"give me another house to think about."

His colleagues looked at him strangely again. They said, "You can use that tower."

From morning till night, he dived into the depths, climbed to the heights, and carried out experimental activities or abstract ideas. In the evening, he walked home-only 50 yards away-and sent the body of a technologist and the heart of a philosopher to the place where he slept-the rest place of a strong man.

Infiltrate evidence into students' minds

For students, this hot and cold professor is very exciting. No one knows what he will do next. One day, his friend Helmholtz, a German scientist, came to his laboratory, visited Kelvin and asked him to do experiments on gyroscopes. A thick metal disk is spinning rapidly. The professor intends to prove that the disk should be vertical when it rotates, so the earth is vertical in terms of its axis by analogy. Suddenly, he grabbed a hammer and slammed it on the disc. The metal disc lost its balance and immediately flew in the centrifugal direction, just hitting Helmholtz's hat hanging on the coat rack and breaking it. The students clamored for this university. Helmholtz was helpless and had to laugh with everyone. Kelvin is full of truth. He said flatly, "If something goes wrong, I'll give you a new hat."

His words are never boring. He said: "I canceled the method of reading moldy papers in class." His classroom and laboratory are full of all kinds of instruments, which is really complete. Small accessories are stacked on the table, some are hung on the ceiling and some are hung on the wall. As for the big one, there is a set of three-piece spiral spring oscillators; A 30-foot pendulum clock with a 12 pound (1 pound ≈0.4536 kg) shell hanging from its tail; A strange-looking machine, with many marbles in it, keeps rolling in all directions to reveal the dynamic movement of the nebula; And piles of gyroscopes. He put one gyroscope on top of the other and rotated it to study the motion of the planets. He assembled these gyroscopes in various ways and twisted them. In the corner of the classroom, a seemingly ordinary device-a metal ring covered with rubber film-hangs on the ceiling to reveal the nature of dew. One day, he asked someone to get water and pour it on the metal ring to make the rubber sag expand. Add more water. Finally, the rubber broke, "like an overloaded dewdrop". The water has splashed on the heads of the students in the front row of the classroom. The professor smiled. "I always like to immerse my proof in your hearts. “

"Every difficulty must have a solution."

Kelvin has rich thoughts and strong mathematical ability, and has opened up many new paths in all aspects of physics. He enjoyed a high reputation in the scientific community at that time and was highly respected by British and European and American scientists. His scientific point of view can be proved by his speech on atmospheric electricity at the Royal College of London in May:

"I often ask such a question, do people only care about facts and phenomena, and give up pursuing the ultimate essence of the material hidden behind the phenomenon? This is a question that must be answered by pure philosophers, and it does not belong to the scope of natural philosophy. But in recent years, the world has seen a series of amazing discoveries that have never been seen in the history of experimental science from the experimental results in this room. These discoveries will inevitably lead people's knowledge to a stage where the laws of the inanimate world will show that each phenomenon is basically linked to all phenomena, and the unity achieved by endless and diverse application laws will be regarded as the product of creative wisdom. "

This passage expresses Kelvin's ideal. He imagined a perfect unified theory, which can cover all phenomena in the world. He has a strong will. In the preface to the Baltimore Lecture published by 1904, he talked about how to deal with difficulties.

"We all feel that we must face up to difficulties and cannot avoid them; We should keep it in mind and hope to solve it. In any case, every difficulty must have a solution, although we may not find it in life. "

Kelvin devoted his life to science. He is not afraid of failure and always maintains an optimistic fighting spirit. In 1896, at the conference commemorating his 50 years of teaching at Glasgow University, he said: "In the past 50 years, the scientific progress I have fought for can be marked by the word' failure'. I don't know much about electricity and magnetism now than I did when I started teaching 50 years ago, nor do I know much about the relationship between ether, electricity and heavy objects or the nature of chemical affinity. There must be some sadness in failure; However, in the process of pursuing science, the necessary efforts involved have brought many happy struggles, which enabled the scientist to avoid depression and may even make him quite happy in his daily work. " Kelvin's words can be said to be a summary of his scientific career.

Lord kelvin, graduate student.

He is older than me. He complained that time passed so quickly. "One second is too short. We need a longer time scale. " Every day, he has to dictate for several hours, with two secretaries around him, one on the left and one on the right. The two secretaries recorded what he dictated on different topics.

Now, he has almost reached the end of his life. The theories and inventions developed in one's life are about to be pushed into a dark corner by some newer theories and inventions. Wilhelm rontgen, Henry Bekkerel, Marie Curie and others, what rich research fields they have opened up for the future! As far as the scientific world outlook is concerned, what kind of revolution they have carried out! Compared with them, how small and inadequate he is! On the occasion of his 50th anniversary as a professor at Glasgow University, he smiled a little at himself.

Three years after the 50th anniversary celebration, he resigned as a professor at Glasgow University. The board of directors hopes that he will not retire and continue to work. But he shook his head. "Please don't get emotional, I'm useless."

He saw his students for the last time. "I think recently that when a person is old, what he appreciates most by the fireside at home are the photos that remind him of college life ... those photos that make your life bright and pure ..." So he left the professorship, but did not leave Glasgow University. As long as there is breath, he can't cut off contact with Glasgow. At the beginning of the 1899 school year, the 76-year-old scholar entered the registration room with undergraduates and also signed up: "Lord Kelvin, graduate student." He finally understood that he could no longer teach; From now on, he just studies.