From the equal natural number, to the discovery of 0, to the irrational number of 2, as well as infinity, transcendence number, etc., human understanding of number has accompanied the development of its own civilization. At 8:00 p.m. on December 16th, Professor Xia Zhihong, a mathematician, was a guest of Alpine Science Classics and read the classic popular science masterpiece "Numbers: The Language of Science" for netizens, telling about the discovery process and significance of these numbers.
Zhihong Xia is a mathematician, astronomer, and professor at Northwestern University, where he founded the Department of Mathematics at Southern University of Science and Technology and served as its first chairman. In 1988, at the age of 26, Xia Zhihong solved the famous Ponlevy conjecture proposed in 1897 in his doctorate**. He went on to make many other important contributions in the field of powertrains, becoming one of the leaders in the field of powertrains and celestial mechanics.
In the guide to the Douyin live broadcast room of "Alpine Science Classics", Xia Zhihong introduced that "Numbers: The Language of Science" was originally published in 1930, and the author Tobias Danzick was a student of the great mathematician Poincaré. The book talks about the development of mathematics from the perspective of cultural thought and even philosophy, from ancient Egypt, China, Greece to the Renaissance, and then extends to modern mathematics. Albert Einstein once described this book as "the most interesting book on the evolution of mathematics that I have ever held".
Xia Zhihong first started with "1+2=3". He introduced that when people first Xi learned this simple calculation when they were children, they would add physical units such as apples and oranges to it, and then a, b, c and x, y, z, etc.
After that, he listed a slightly more complicated equation "0+1+2=3", which only added a "0" to the previous equation. Don't underestimate this "0", Danzick believes that the discovery of "0" is one of the greatest achievements of mankind. Xia Zhihong introduced that "0" was discovered by the Indians for the first time, and the Indians also invented Arabic numerals, which were transmitted to Arabia and then to the world. Among them, when it spread to Europe, the concept of "0" was greatly hindered and was not accepted until about 100 years later. The President of the Indian Mathematical Society once said at the International Congress of Mathematics that "India's greatest contribution to human civilization is '0'".
Xia Zhihong introduced to netizens in the Douyin live broadcast room that the book tries to ** mathematics from a philosophical point of view, putting forward the statement that "the more human beings know about numbers, the faster the progress of civilization". The book gives an interesting example: a crow can count to 4 intuitively. A crow made a nest in a farm house, and the farmer took a gun to shoot him if he didn't like it, and every time he entered the house, the crow would fly out and wait for him to leave before going back. Later, when two people, three people, or four people entered the house, the crows would wait for people before flying back. It wasn't until 5 people went in that the crow made a mistake and flew into the house after the 4th person left.
The book also gives an example that among primitive human tribes and monkeys who do not have the consciousness of counting, the concept of logarithm can only reach 4. Nowadays, the reason why human beings are able to recognize so many numbers is not based on intuition, but by the method of counting. Xia Zhihong also introduced the process of human beings discovering irrational numbers, real numbers, infinity and transcendent numbers, and the discovery of these numbers is closely related to the process of human civilization.
The Douyin live broadcast room guide program also has a discussion session, hosted by Guo Linchen, a senior science program planning host, and Zhou Haihong, an esthetician, a psychologist and a former vice president of the college, participated in the discussion. When talking about the relationship between mathematics and **, Xia Zhihong started from 2 is an irrational number, and according to the relationship between ** midrange and resonance, he came to the "confusion of **" that "from alto c to treble c cannot be evenly divided into 12 semitones". Zhou Haihong used mathematics to explain the characteristics of the tune of horror and joy.
It is understood that Alpine Science Classics is committed to inviting 100 well-known scholars to be readers and 200 celebrities to be guests to jointly analyze scientific masterpieces, lead the public to read scientifically, increase interest in science, improve scientific and cultural literacy, and integrate science into the lifestyle of modern people. The program will be broadcast every Saturday night at 20:00, and netizens can follow the Douyin account @高山科学classics **Replay and make an appointment.
In recent years, more and more university professors, scholars, and academicians have entered Douyin to disseminate scientific knowledge to the public. Only the popular science books related to mathematics that have been read in the program "Alpine Science Classics" include "Fermat's Great Theorem", "Master of Mathematics", "Von Neumann's Biography" and so on. According to the "2022 Douyin Knowledge Data Report", there were 21,103 live broadcasts of colleges and universities on Douyin, an increase of 46% over the whole year of 2021, and the number of Douyin users of college live broadcasts reached 95 million. During the year, 400 professors, 45 academicians, and 4 Nobel laureates shared their knowledge on Douyin.
In addition to reading classics, Douyin popular science live broadcast also leads users to explore the most cutting-edge knowledge. In the recently concluded Nobel Prize awarding season, Douyin's "Knowledge Frontier Party" invited 14 scientists, experts, and science popularizers such as Cao Zexian, Li Yongle, and Guo Wei to explain the knowledge of the Nobel Prize, which was welcomed by netizens. It is reported that Douyin's "Knowledge Frontier Party" event was launched on October 1 this year and will last until January 1 next year, including live dialogues with scientists, timely interpretation of key scientific hotspots, and scientific content contributions by creators, covering multiple dimensions such as cutting-edge science, scientific and technological development, and science fiction imagination.