Fox of France

A few mornings later, Joseph put on formal clothes again, and Napoleon in military uniform boarded a light two-wheeled carriage to participate in the speed of light measurement experiment to be conducted at Burton Castle outside Paris tonight.

Fort Burton is the property of the Orleans family, a castle built on top of a hill. This castle is said to be a military fortress built in the twelfth century, and it has long since lost its military value. When the castle was built, it was almost completely uninhabitable in order to strengthen its defenses. So now the castle is almost in a semi-abandoned state. However, it is a good place to do experiments. It is far away from the city, and there are few residents nearby, so there is almost no light pollution. And on the top of the tall castle, the fire reflected by the reflector about four or five miles away (one mile is about four kilometers) can be clearly seen. This is all critical for evening experiments.

However, this place is a bit remote, and it is also a bit far from Paris. No public carriage will go here, so Joseph rented a light two-wheeled carriage to go there.

The buggy walked all morning, until about three o'clock in the afternoon, before arriving near Burton Castle. Under the hill where the castle is located, there is a manor of the Orleans family. Those who came to participate in the experiment at this time all stayed in this manor. The buggy stopped at the gate of the manor. Then a waiter came up to ask. Joseph identified himself to the waiter, and after a while, the wrought iron gate of the manor was opened, and the light carriage drove into the manor along the road paved with stones, and stopped in front of a large house with an obvious Baroque style. A waiter came forward to open the car door, Joseph and Napoleon got down from above, and a messenger wearing a wig led them in.

The waiter led them through the hall to a small garden at the back, and in that small garden was a small glass greenhouse. This is nothing in later generations, but in this era, it is not something that ordinary people can afford. At this time, several people were sitting inside drinking tea while watching the blooming roses inside. Joseph walked over, and he noticed that Condorcet, Lavoisier, Laplace, and Monge were all there. But he did not see the owner, Duke Charles.

"Ah, Joseph, come here, come here..." As soon as he saw Joseph, Lavoisier waved to him. Joseph stepped forward, greeted them one by one, and thanked Monge and Laplace especially for their recommendation. Of course, to Napoleon, this thank you means thanking them for recommending his paper.

Then Joseph introduced his brother to them: "This is my brother Napoleon. He is studying at the Military Academy in Paris. He is also very interested in science, so I brought him here to open his eyes. By the way, why not See His Royal Highness?"

"His Royal Highness was there at first. But not long ago, he was summoned by His Majesty the King... I don't know what it is." Lavoisier said, "But His Royal Highness asked his housekeeper, Mr. Will, to stay here to assist us. Now In fact, everything has been prepared, just waiting for the evening."

In the past few days, with the cooperation of the Orleans family, people from the Academy of Sciences have accurately measured the straight-line distance from the watchtower of Fort Burton to the tops of the two nearby unnamed hills. In order to ensure sightlines, they also cut down all the trees on the top of the two nameless hills - anyway, that is also the property of the Orleans family.

Now everything is ready, except that it is dark. Everyone had nothing to do at this time, so they discussed various scientific issues together. Monge and Laplace got together to discuss the expression of the potential function of the gravitational component of a celestial body to any particle outside it. Napoleon also leaned in to listen, but it was just listening. He is not like Joseph, and he can interject a few words from time to time.

At this time, people from the Orleans family came to invite everyone to dinner. Because the experiment is about to be carried out, the dinner is actually a working meal. According to the standards of the Orleans family, it is not a rich meal at all. But even so, many things were eaten by Joseph and Napoleon for the first time. For example, slices of truffles in bread with foie gras and other things that Joseph didn't even know what they were in his mouth.

After eating, everyone got into the carriage again and drove to the castle not far away. The carriage zigzagged up along the winding road, and arrived under the castle not long after.

Everyone got out of the carriage. At this time, the sun in the west was already close to the horizon, and it was getting bigger and redder.

The servants lit the lanterns and led the people from the Academy of Sciences into the castle.

Buildings such as castles generally have very thick stone walls and very small windows, usually inside, to ensure their defense. Therefore, the ventilation and lighting of this type of building will be very poor. Not to mention it is already in the evening, even at noon, the inside of the castle is so dark that it needs to be lit. Therefore, except in times of war, nobles are rarely willing to live in castles. Up to now, because of the advancement of artillery, these ancient castles no longer have military significance, and the nobles will naturally not live here, and they are even unwilling to pay for continuing to take care of them, so Naturally, these castles are generally dilapidated. The gloomy castles that need to be illuminated even during the day, coupled with the dilapidated ones, have turned these castles into the stage of ghost stories one after another. Including the ancient castle they entered now, there is actually a legend of "the ghost of the ancient castle".

Joseph led Napoleon, and followed a waiter carrying a lantern up the winding stone steps. While illuminating the steps with a lantern, the waiter reminded: "Sir, the castle is very humid. It's mossy and slippery, so be careful when going up."

"Thank you, we will pay attention." Joseph replied with his head down, staring at the stone steps under his feet.

Soon they came to the top watchtower of the castle. This is a small platform about twenty meters long. At one end of this little platform there was a firepile of logs doused in whale oil. Once the brazier is lit, it can emit a brighter fire light than ordinary flames. In the dark conditions, this fire can be clearly seen even in nine miles or even farther away. On the other end of the platform, there is a set of eight-sided mirrors that can be rotated.

There is also a telescope on the platform. Looking through the telescope, you can see that a set of reflectors has been installed on the top of the mountain over there.

"Have these reflectors been adjusted?" Joseph asked.

"It has been adjusted. It can accurately reflect the light to the other side of the eight-sided mirror." Monge replied in a deep voice.

The sun was getting lower and lower, and at last it sank below the horizon. Only a lavender afterglow remained in the western sky. Stars one after another appeared in the gradually blackening sky, and after a while, the sky was covered with jewel-like stars.

Seeing that it was already dark enough, Lavoisier said, "Okay, we should be able to start."

A waiter lit a large fire with a torch in his hand, and a firework rose from the top of the mountain over there. This is to show them that the fire here can be clearly seen from the top of the mountain over there.

After getting this response, everyone turned their attention to the other side of the eight-sided mirror. Because according to the experimental setting, the fire light shoots from one side of the rotating eight-sided mirror to the reflecting mirror on the other hill, and then reflects back. If the eight-sided mirror just rotates a mirror angle during this period, the reflected light can be seen from the other side of the eight-sided mirror.

There is no reflection in that direction. The eight-sided mirror turned faster and faster, but still did not see the fire.

"Faster, faster." Joseph stared at the rotating eight-sided mirror.

The rotating speed of the eight-sided mirror continued to accelerate, and finally, the flickering fire began to flicker on the side that everyone was staring at.

"Hold on, hold on to the speed, ok, ok! Come on, record the speed!" Monge shouted.

An assistant quickly recorded the speed.

As soon as the data came out, Joseph, Laplace, and Monge immediately surrounded them. By the light of the fire, the calculations began. Laplace came up with the answer first, and then Monge also figured it out. As for Joseph, when they all figured it out, Joseph's calculation was only about two-thirds completed.

"Haha, Joseph, your calculation ability is not good enough, it's so slow." Monge laughed loudly.

Napoleon also had a gloating smile all over his face. Looking into his eyes, Joseph knew that this guy was thinking: "My stupid brother, you are sometimes despised by others."

"In my previous life, such complex calculations were solved by pressing Enter. Who would use manual methods? I can have such a speed, which is already very good. If someone else , maybe I haven’t even finished half of it right now.” Thinking this way, Joseph replied with a wry smile: “My calculations are not very good, and the speed can never be faster, and if I speed it up a little, I will It's going to go wrong. I can't help it."

The people next to them laughed together.

Amidst the laughter, Joseph also completed his calculation. The three people compared the calculated results, and they were basically the same. Joseph silently converted this number into kilometers, and concluded that it was very close to the speed of light measured by later generations.

"It's so fast?" Laplace murmured, "If light is indeed a wave, what kind of strange properties should ether have? It's hard to imagine! But if light is a particle, double-slit interference and Bonaparte How should Ba Liangban explain..."

"Let's amplify our courage. What if the medium of light transmission is not some kind of substance we usually think of, but space itself?" Napoleon on the side suddenly said.

"Space itself? Light is actually the fluctuation of space?" Condorcet immediately said after hearing this, "Ah, Napoleon, you are very talented in philosophy. However, if this idea is regarded as a scientific conjecture, it is obvious that it lacks sufficient evidence. Science needs evidence, just like your brother's conjecture, which is supported by at least a set of mathematical models. But this kind of view is really... Unfortunately, we don't have any available research methods for space itself."

And Napoleon's words also shocked Joseph. Of course he knows that although light ether does not exist, light is not a fluctuation in space. Space can indeed have fluctuations, but such fluctuations are not light, but gravitational waves.

"This guy, this guy has a bit of imagination. If you train him carefully, can he be trained to become the emperor of physics in the end?" Joseph couldn't help thinking.