Chapter 48: The Duke’s Invitation
Chapter 48 – The Duke’s Invitation
As soon as Faraday’s question was asked, Arthur immediately sensed something was wrong.
As a senior student graduated from the history department of the University of London, he could be said to know almost nothing about the current progress of the world’s science.
In order to prevent pulling out a whole bunch of new concepts that hadn’t been invented for the time being during his explanation of the Lorentz force, this time he wisely used the interruptions and condescension techniques he had honed in Scotland Yard and the magistrate’s court.
Arthur rubbed the back of his head and put on a look of embarrassment as he spoke.
“Mr. Faraday, I’m sorry to have misheard you. I’m from Yorkshire, so my spoken pronunciation isn’t as standard as a London accent, and what I said just now wasn’t actually Lorenz (Lorenz), but Lawrence (Lawrence).”
Faraday was surprised, “Lawrence? These two words do sound similar.”
Arthur returned, “Forget about that for now, is there anything else you’ve heard that you’re confused about that I just said when I expressed the left-handed rule?”
Faraday thought back, “I don’t think there’s anything else, like anything about electric charge or anything like that, it’s all rather basic concepts. And your accent wasn’t as heavy elsewhere, I heard it all very clearly.”
Arthur’s hanging heart finally dropped when he heard this.
It didn’t matter if there were no electrons, the concept of electric charge would do.
With his heart in the right place, Arthur’s tone of voice also relaxed a lot.
“Mr. Faraday, you should know that Lawrence means laurel and honor.
This also represents my view of the Lawrence force, which is like an honor that looks as if it exists but doesn’t actually exist.
Perhaps it exists only in people’s imagination.
That is to say, I speculate that it may exist, but then I can’t prove that it exists; it may be a force in name only.”
Faraday frowned at his words and pondered, “Are you saying that this so-called Lawrence force is a conjecture of yours?”
“That’s right.”
“And what is your definition of it?”
Arthur, seeing that Faraday and the audience in the room had been thoroughly carried away by him, was relieved to begin his condescension.
“May I ask you, what is the current academic definition of electric current?”
Faraday thoughtlessly returned, “The electric current was first proposed by the Italian scientist Galvani, and after a long period of controversy, Mr. Benjamin Franklin discovered positive and negative charges in the 18th century 50’s, and after many years of discussion since then, the academic community eventually unified to specify the direction of the directional movement of positive charges as the direction of motion of the electric current.”
Hearing this, Arthur finally smiled and said, “As you said in your party’s speech and experiment, electricity can produce magnetism, and magnetism can produce electricity, and you should know that there will be a force between magnetism and electricity.
Therefore, when I was watching your experiment just now, I guessed that if the electric current is composed of electric charges, then in the process of magnetism generating electricity, those newborn charges should also be subjected to forces during their movement.
The Ampere’s force is the force of the magnetic field on the current, while the Lawrence’s force, as I call it, is the force on the moving charges in the magnetic field.
Although both are forces on electricity, one is from a macroscopic point of view and the other is from a microscopic point of view.”
Faraday’s brows suddenly knitted when he heard Arthur’s explanation, he pondered for a moment and suddenly seemed to have figured something out.
He opened his mouth and inquired, “That is to say, you think that the Ampere force is the combined force of this so-called Lawrence force?”
Arthur nodded, “Exactly.”
Faraday rubbed his forehead and spoke with a smile, “I have to say, that’s an interesting conjecture and it sounds very logical.
However, as far as current scientific research is concerned, while we know that electric charge exists, it is also only an extreme idealized model of what we imagine to be a mass with mass but no volume or shape.
No wonder you call this force the Lawrence force, as it stands, it is indeed a laurel and honor that cannot be touched but feels to exist.”
Arthur laughed, “I apologize for not being able to bring you much substance, this is merely a bit of my own personal, unrealistic speculation.”
No sooner had Arthur said this than the Red Devil off to the side muttered in a small voice, “Hey! For fuck’s sake, Arthur, your kid’s guess was pretty accurate.” Although the so-called Lawrence force was just a guess, Faraday still did not hide his appreciation for Arthur.
He smiled and patted Arthur’s shoulder, “Young man, what science needs is conjecture.
Before anyone proves you wrong, then you could be right, and no one can easily deny you.
Many people didn’t believe that magnetism could produce electricity until I came up with the results of my experiments, but it did, science is such a wonderful thing.
Perhaps some day in the future the Lawrence force you speak of will become a reality?
By the way, I have not yet asked for your name.”
Arthur bowed with a slight indentation, “Arthur Hastings.”
“Arthur Hastings?” When Faraday heard this name, he froze for a moment, then mused, “I seem to have heard this name somewhere.”
As soon as he finished saying this, a lady sitting not far away suddenly exclaimed, “Scotland Yard police uniforms, still wearing shiny epaulettes, the name Arthur Hastings, and also very young.
My God! He, he can’t be the same Constable Arthur who saved the poor child’s life at the magistrates’ court?”
“The constable who was all over the papers some time ago?”
“The embodiment of justice, the public role model, that strongest voice of Scotland Yard?”
“Wow! It might really be him! Young and upwardly mobile, and so learned; only such a man could convince a jury and a magistrate.”
For a moment the quiet meeting-place was once more abuzz with excitement.
All began to give a standing ovation, that is, in honor of Faraday’s new discovery, and as a courtesy to Arthur’s wealth of learning and past experience.
Faraday saw the audience standing up and Arthur, who rarely blushed but still maintained his composure and waved back to the audience, the pioneer of electromagnetism couldn’t help but smile and said.
“Sergeant Arthur, who said that Lawrence represents laurels and honors? Look at all these standing ovations from the public; your distinguished name, Hastings, is the real laurel and honor.
Why don’t you just stop calling it Lawrence Force and call it Hastings Force, even if it’s out of sight and out of mind, as long as the public doesn’t deny it, your name will always be there!”
Arthur sniffed and was surprised, “Is that really possible?”
“Of course.” Faraday smiled and extended his hand to Arthur, “In addition to that, I also hope that you can give me permission to cite two of your theorems for explanatory illustrations in my soon to be finished paper, I wonder if you can agree to that?”
Arthur looked at Faraday’s outstretched hand, contemplated for a while, and opened his mouth.
“I can give you permission to make a citation, but before that I also hope that you can grant me a request.”
“What request?”
Arthur said seriously, “I’m not going to hide it from you, but I actually wanted to listen to a chemistry lecture today. But ……”
Faraday smiled broadly at his words, “So that’s what you’re here for, I’m more confident in chemistry than electromagnetism.
If you want to listen to this aspect of knowledge, you can come to me at any time. If I am not here, then it is necessarily in the laboratories of the Royal Society.
Oh yes, I can go to the president and ask for a Royal Society pass for you, so you can come in and out of the academy whenever you want.”
Faraday said this and was just about to turn his head to find the president.
Unexpectedly, just as he turned around, he saw a servant also wearing a dark black suit running quickly towards Arthur.
The servant bowed slightly and spoke at Arthur, “Mr. Hastings, the president of the Royal Society, Duke Sussex, has an invitation.”
(End of chapter)