?

The reason why so many people came to listen to the first class was because most students were helpless.

As of Cheng Nuo's time, there were only three public universities in the country including Peking University, and higher education resources were very scarce. It was not until 1921 that the situation improved, that is, it expanded to six.

There is a saying that has been circulating among Peking University students: "Peking University is old, Normal University is poor, and only Tsinghua University can be accommodating."

First, when I say Peking University is old, I mean its history, students, and professors are old.

The history of the university is easy to understand. It is the only product left after the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898, and it is also the earliest national university in the country. The students are generally older when they enroll in the early years, and many of them continued their studies after getting married. For example

In 1913, when Chen Hanzhang graduated from the Chinese history major with the first grade, he was already 50 years old, which was very rare in later generations. As for the old professor, it also means that the teacher is generally older.

Let’s talk about Normal University being poor, that is, “poor” in the literal sense. It’s just that it’s not the school that’s poor, but the students that are poor.

The predecessor of the Normal School of Capital University was under the management of the government. You will definitely not be poor if you are poor, and the teaching funds are guaranteed. But because it is a normal school, students’ tuition and accommodation fees are exempted according to the charter, which can save a year.

You only need to pay a certain deposit for admission, so many students from poor families choose it as their first choice for studying.

Finally, let’s talk about Qinghua’s accommodation. As a school built with Boxer Indemnity funds, it is of course very rich.

At this time, it is not a university in the strict sense, but serves more as a "preparatory office for studying in the United States." After students complete advanced subjects, they do not graduate from college, but are inserted into American universities. Since then, it is not under the control of the Ministry of Education but under the control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

You can understand its connotation if you manage it. Most of the teachers in the school are foreigners. They think they are superior to others and have irreconcilable conflicts with the students. Fortunately, preparations for the establishment of a full university began last year, but it was a pity that it was approved 8 years later.

Only then can the university department be fully established.

But looking at it from another perspective, Qinghua has the best school spirit and the strictest school discipline among these colleges. To what extent, everyone's hand towels and washbasins must be marked and placed, and if they are dirty, they must be

Students must be punished. They must eat on time every day, and their student number is marked on the table. Students who are absent will be punished. Students are only allowed to bring a small amount of pocket money, and every penny and dime must be recorded. At the end of the month, the school has a specialized agency to verify the account book.

Every detail is required to be clear. Anyone who violates one of them will be punished, ranging from criticism to being shut down and even expelled. Pan Guangdan, one of the four great philosophers of Qinghua University, was dismissed because he was afraid of walking at night and walked outside the dormitory.

Small once.

After talking about so much, there is actually only one core idea, that is, the shortage of teachers, especially the shortage of high-quality Chinese teachers.

Whether they were out of curiosity or sincerely seeking to learn, Cheng Nuo treated these students equally, gave lectures in simple and profound terms, and left ten minutes for questions and answers before get out of class ended.

While everyone was still hesitating, a student raised his hand first. After receiving permission, he stood up and bowed: "Hello, Professor Cheng, I am Gao Zhiwei from Qinghua School. Thank you for teaching us the most cutting-edge mathematics knowledge.

The content is lively and interesting, but aside from professional knowledge, I have always had a question, that is, what is mathematics, and what can it bring to our troubled country?"

Cheng Nuo smiled and asked the student to sit down first. After thinking briefly, he wrote a line on the blackboard: "What exactly is mathematics?"

After a short pause, he continued to write a few lines. After finishing, he turned around and introduced to the students:

"I take the derivation of mathematical formulas as an example. All sciences - content = science, mathematics + certain content = certain science, so mathematics is the basis of all sciences, that is, the mother of all sciences. In terms of natural science, it can be applied to astronomy,

Physics, chemistry, geology, social sciences, economics, insurance, accounting, etc. are also inseparable from mathematics. Other subjects such as perspective learning in traditional Chinese painting and music learning are also indispensable with his participation."

"From this, the second question can be easily explained. The sharpness of combat tools and the novelty of construction projects in modern times have all been driven by this subject."

Having said this, Cheng Nuo smiled at the student who had just asked the question and asked kindly: "Student Gao, you just said that you are from Qinghua School. Can it be said that one day in the future you will go to the other side of the Pacific to study?"

Gao Zhiwei hesitated for a moment and nodded: "Yes, I will go to the United States next year."

Cheng Shuo looked at him and smiled and said: "Very good, I wish you a bright future. As far as I know, the US Army has a shooting teaching group in the artillery department. There is a famous mathematician named Moulton in the teaching group.

By teaching mathematics to improve the accuracy of artillery shooting, we have even published a special textbook "Ballistic Methods". If you have a chance, you can find it and read it."

Cheng Nuo patted the chalk powder on his hand and faced everyone: "And shooting is only a small part of the application of mathematics in warfare. Others such as the production of firearms, warships, and artillery are inseparable from mathematics. This is actually science.

It can also be said to be a mathematical war. If our military strength is strong enough, the waters of Shandong Province will not allow German submarines to easily swim."

After the 128th Songhu Anti-Japanese War, some scholars felt deeply that the ordnance was inferior to that of the Japanese army. At the same time, they also attributed part of the reason to insufficient shooting accuracy. They believed that the distance between the landing site Zhabei and the Hongkou artillery position was not very far, but the artillery of the Chinese army was

The inaccurate shooting allowed the Japanese troops to land easily.

"Whether it is people's livelihood or military affairs, mathematics plays a role that cannot be ignored."

The students had more and more questions, and even though many of them were beyond the scope of the class field theory course, Cheng Nuo tried his best to answer them one by one.

The classroom was crowded and stuffy, so a small window was left open for ventilation. At this moment, a sparrow flew in. It tilted its neck and watched the teachers and students in the room having a heated discussion. It chirped from time to time, as if a little kid was talking.

in participation.

Ten minutes was obviously not enough time to answer these students' questions. In the end, Cheng Nuo had to raise his hand to stop the questioning, announced the next class time, and said that he would continue to answer questions before he was squeezed out of the crowd of students.

As soon as he returned to the office, he saw Feng Xuxun and others from the mathematics department sitting and waiting for him. They applauded him as soon as he entered the door.

Out of concern for Cheng Nuo, not long after his class, Feng Zuxun, Qin Fen and others entered through the back door to observe, on the one hand to suppress him, and on the other hand, to prevent him from being inexperienced in teaching for the first time and making mistakes in time.

remedy.

Unexpectedly, after the initial nervousness, Cheng Nuo actually completed the lecture with ease. Even the students would rather drag the class to let him continue. This is a treatment only reserved for some liberal arts masters.

After learning about it, Cheng Nuo just smiled modestly: "This is all the praise of the students. After class, I concluded that there are still many shortcomings. I still need to work harder."

Qin Fen handed over a cup of tea: "Zhiyuan, I thought I might not be as good as you in academics, and you might not be ahead of me in teaching, but I didn't expect that you are also good at it. You have to teach me two skills."

In private, everyone has a good relationship, and ordinary jokes are harmless. Feng Zuxun echoed: "He must be taught. Don't you know that when Jing Yang first came, the students nicknamed him 'Professor of Hypnosis'

.”

Suddenly, a joyful atmosphere filled the mathematics office.

The influence of this class does not stop there. After returning home, some students compiled the lecture notes and class answers and published them in their own school's journal.

After a reporter saw it, he excerpted a part of it and published it in popular newspapers and magazines, triggering public discussion on mathematics.

Opponents believe that the role of mathematics has been exaggerated: "Mathematics is only the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of numbers. Saving the country and the people is not as practical as industry. How can you use the so-called class field theory when you go to a teahouse to drink tea and settle accounts? It is in vain."

Of course, the opponents are only a small part, and there are more supporters: "If the knowledge of mathematics in the world is only for counting things, it would be a big mistake. It is the foundation of the general academic knowledge of mathematics, and it can be the ultimate among all things.

When it comes to simply counting things, we know that adding two to one makes five."

During this discussion, Cheng Nuo became more and more famous and had more and more fans. The previous small classroom could not accommodate so many people, so it was finally changed to an auditorium.

Some people come here to learn about class field theory, while others come here specifically to answer their own mathematical problems.

But there are not only benefits to having more people, because the number of female students attending classes has increased, which is intolerable for the old stubborn who insists on the female ban, so they began to criticize Cheng Nuo's practices in some non-mainstream newspapers and periodicals.

Peking University and Cai Yuanpei also received some criticism.
Chapter completed!