Creak—

The sound of the carriage coming to a stop quickly caught the attention of the people under the shade of the trees, and William's expression gradually became serious.

After a moment.

Hoo—

With the sound of the wind lifting the curtain, a figure slowly walked down from the carriage.

The person who came was a man in his thirties, slightly short and hunched over. He wore a powdered wig made of horsehair and a gray robe.

It is worth noting that the fabric of the robe was extremely rare silk—although the 17th century Gaul already had a complete silk production system, and Lyon had even become the center of silk production and design in Europe, silk was still a luxury item belonging to the ceiling level before the invention of the Jenny spinning machine.

If tea in this era belonged to the level of a Rolls-Royce Phantom, then silk was equivalent to a Bentley Continental.

Judging from the current map of England, the person who came was at least a rich second-generation from an autonomous municipality, or a wealthy merchant or aristocrat with power.

Looking at the man walking towards them, William's eyebrows slightly furrowed. He carefully protected Alula and Lilani behind him, while Mrs. William instinctively stood in front of Andrea.

As for Lisa, she was left aside— in this era, assuming the same situation, the safety of adult women was actually higher than that of children.

The specific topic is too sensitive, and will not be elaborated on.

However, beside Lisa, little Newton had quietly picked up his own holy book, ready to use reason to persuade if something went wrong.

Gurgle—

William looked at the man who was getting closer, his Adam's apple rolling a few times. Before knowing the other party's intentions, his tone still maintained a certain level of respect:

"Sir, may I ask what business you have?"

The newcomer raised his eyelids and glanced at him, a hint of a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. He reached out and pressed down, indicating for him not to be nervous:

"Please rest assured, sir, I am not the kind of person you think I am."

Then he walked to little Newton's side and stared at the Cambridge University uniform he was wearing, focusing on the emblem of Trinity College for a few seconds:

"Cambridge University, Trinity College?"

Whether it was because of his high position or not, the man's tone carried a hint of questioning, which made little Newton inexplicably annoyed.

But at this time, little Newton was still the youthful version of the future irritable brother. The lack of status and identity made him lack the confidence to speak up, so he just dryly replied:

"That's right."

"Then you must be a student of Isaac* Barrow?"

"That's right."

Upon hearing these words, the newcomer suddenly snorted.

"What is your name?"

A shadow of gloom flashed in little Newton's eyes, and after a few seconds, he said:

"Isaac Newton."

The newcomer's eyes narrowed slightly, as if he sensed little Newton's displeasure:

"Isaac Newton? Good name.

Let me introduce myself, I am Robert Hooke, the current professor of geometry at Graysham College."

Upon hearing these words, little Newton and William's family hadn't had time to react, but Xu Yun's heart suddenly tightened, and he almost crushed the bread in his leaf package!

It's actually him?!

Anyone who knows little Newton's experience should know.

In little Newton's 85 years of life, there was one person who was both his mentor and rival, inseparable from him.

When mentioning Newton, one must mention this person.

He is Robert...

Hooke!

Hooke was born in July 1635, seven and a half years older than little Newton. He had excellent grades since childhood and later entered the famous Oxford University.

However, for some reason, Hooke did not eventually graduate, but fortunately became Robert Boyle's research assistant.

Due to his outstanding scientific insights, in 1662, this extraordinary young scientist was recommended to serve as the head of the Royal Society's laboratory and quickly became a fellow of the Royal Society.

And in the decades of love and hate with little Newton that followed, Hooke's abilities were unquestionable.

In mechanics, Hooke proposed Hooke's Law, which is the basic law of elasticity and material mechanics and is widely applied.

In the American TV series "Prison Break," Michael used Hooke's Law to break through the reinforced concrete wall of the prison with an egg beater.

In optics, he advocated the wave theory and was on par with the head of the Gaul Science Academy, Huygens.

At the same time, Hooke was also a DIY enthusiast. With his magical hands, he expanded humanity's vision in the worlds of the very large and the very small:

He improved the telescope, observed Jupiter's Great Red Spot and lunar craters for the first time, improved the microscope, discovered and named cells (another scientist, Leeuwenhoek, discovered bacteria), and his masterpiece "Micrographia" was popular at the time.

However, what was dramatic was that just when Hooke was at the height of his fame, little Newton arrived.

In 1668, young Newton placed the first reflecting telescope on the desk of the Royal Society, which directly angered Hooke.

The reflecting telescope was the most advanced telescope design at the time, and it directly invaded Hooke's two areas of expertise in the society:

Optics and instrument design.When this small and exquisite model, which outperformed all previous refracting telescopes, appeared, Hooke felt his status was being challenged. Therefore, he did not join the camp praising the reflecting telescope, but loudly proclaimed himself as the pioneer in making practical reflecting telescopes.

At the meeting, Hooke emphasized that he had made a reflecting telescope of only 3 centimeters seven years before little Newton, which performed better than other telescopes up to 15 meters long.

He even had smaller designs that could be fitted into a pocket watch, but further research was delayed due to the spread of the Black Death and the reconstruction work after the Great Fire of London.

This debate caused great harm to little Newton. It reminded him of his experience of being bullied in his youth, and he even threatened to withdraw from the Royal Society.

Finally, under the mediation of the secretary of the Royal Society, Henry Oldenburg, both sides finally reached a "reconciliation".

But since then, little Newton began to "retire" in Cambridge, no longer publishing his academic achievements.

However, the feud between little Newton and Hooke did not end. In 1679, Hooke wrote a letter to Newton.

After a series of discussions on mechanics, Hooke told Newton that he believed there was a gravitational force between any two objects, and this force was inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the objects, which is the so-called inverse square law.

To put it simply, Hooke generously pointed out little Newton's mistake, without hiding it and watching him go the wrong way.

But he also arrogantly said that this calculation requires a new tool, so Newton, even if you know where you are wrong, you can't calculate it, haha~

This tool is actually calculus, or what little Newton called the method of fluxions, which was nearly perfected at that time.

But little Newton was very cunning, he didn't tell Hooke about this, and he secretly derived the universal gravitation formula.

In 1687, with the sponsorship of the British astronomer Halley, little Newton published one of the greatest works in the history of human science, "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", which was later referred to as "Principia".

This novel is available on "pawread dot com".

In this book, little Newton proposed the famous Newton's three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation, and using the calculus he invented, he proved that Kepler's three laws can be derived from the inverse square law of gravitation.

The publication of this book made little Newton famous all over the world, not only solving the world's problems at that time, but also inventing one of the most powerful tools in the history of mathematics, calculus.

In Halley's words, he became the "person closest to God in the world", and his life was perfect except for being single.

At this time, Hooke wrote another letter to little Newton, asking him to revise the "Principia" and admit that he was the discoverer of the inverse square law.

This request thoroughly angered little Newton. He wrote back to Hooke, saying that this law was not proposed by Hooke, but a fact known to all.

In a fit of anger, little Newton deleted all the text related to Hooke in the "Principia", trying to erase Hooke from this ancient history.

Speaking of little Newton and Hooke, there is another truly little-known fact.

We mentioned earlier the story of Tao Gong refusing to bow for five pecks of rice. This letter involves another childhood-ruining sentence.

Many people know that little Newton once said:

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."

Many people think this is little Newton's self-deprecating motivation, but in fact, it is a satire on Hooke.

You see, Hooke himself was not tall and had a hunchback.

Therefore, this reply from little Newton was not meant to be motivational at all. The subtext was, "My achievements have nothing to do with you, Hooke, the hunchbacked dwarf!"

Of course.

The context of this sentence was a reply from little Newton when discussing the color of thin plates. At that time, it was fanned by Henry Oldenburg - yes, the old man who mediated the first meeting between the two.

So the details of this sentence are not so dramatic, at least it has nothing to do with universal gravitation, but it is indeed a satirical sentence.

After Hooke's death, little Newton was elected as the new president of the Royal Society. In the first year of his term, Hooke's laboratory and library were disbanded on the spot, and the experimental equipment left by Hooke was either scattered or destroyed.

Even in 1710, when the Royal Society moved its headquarters, Hooke's only portrait was "accidentally lost" during the move, and no one knows what Hooke really looked like.

So in a sense, the debate between little Newton and Hooke from beginning to end was a life-and-death struggle between academic authorities.

But what puzzled Xu Yun was...

Not to mention how Hooke appeared here, the debate between little Newton and Hooke should have taken place thirteen years later. Why did these two seem a bit confrontational when they met now?

..............

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