The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 878: Chapter 11 Ashamed to Admit, I’ve Made a Small Contribution to Fluid Mechanics_3

Arthur seeing this, could only blink a couple of times and nod with a smile: ”Joseph, thank you so much for your help today.”

Ville waved his hand nonchalantly: ”It’s nothing. I don’t have many hobbies, my favorite thing to do is to interact with young scholars like you. As long as you don’t mind me.”

With that, Ville gently closed the door and ran towards his office where his papers were stored at lightning speed.

In Arthur’s eyes, with this speed, even if Mr. Ville doesn’t become a mathematician in the future, he could still become an athlete in France.

Just as Ville left, the library was soon filled with the nagging voice of the Red Devil.

Agares tapped his black fingernails on the table, looking like he was enjoying the chaos: ”So, Arthur, want to have a chat with me? Discussing a topic like ’integral curves on double surfaces’ might be a bit challenging for humans, but for a learned professor like Agares, writing an extraordinary paper is faster than Baal cleaning a septic tank.”

In response to Agares’ mockery, Arthur’s reply was straightforward: ”Damn! Shut up, Agares, instead of wasting time, why don’t you help me recall how to write the expression for the hyperbolic sine function? I remember they seem to be related to trigonometric functions, isn’t Cosh X = Cos iX?”

Hearing this, Agares pretended to be surprised: ”Oh, my dear Arthur, I didn’t know you could even understand that! It seems I have to admit, the average mathematical literacy of University of London’s history graduates is indeed significantly higher than that of your classical literature graduates. At least you are a bit better than Eld, although your advantage is limited.”

Arthur was annoyed by the Red Devil, knowing that he definitely couldn’t rely on this guy at the moment.

Although he couldn’t write a mathematical paper proficiently, at the very least he needed to list a few equations to prove he had put in some effort.

He admitted that there was indeed a gap between British mathematics and French mathematics, but it shouldn’t be so vast.

Arthur forced himself to open the calculation paper, intending to squeeze out his brain cells to honor British mathematics, when he suddenly found that the calculation paper in front of him had been written all over.

Arthur’s eyebrows furrowed at this sight, and his expression became subtle.

It wasn’t because he couldn’t understand the equations on the paper, on the contrary, he was surprised to recognize all of them.

The Red Devil also noticed Arthur’s unusual behavior, glanced at the paper, and sneered: ”You humans have a decent research speed, even pushing it this far. But, Arthur, why are you staring at these equations? Separate these Greek letters, and you know they are Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. Put them together, do you know what they mean? You, a semi-illiterate from the history department, are pretending to be a natural philosopher here?”

Agares initially thought his words would anger Arthur, but when he turned his head, he found the guy had somehow resumed his characteristic gentle smile.

He exuded a confident demeanor that greatly irritated the Red Devil.

Agares suddenly had a bad feeling, instinctively wanting to lower the price: ”Last offer, fifteen souls, I’ll help you finish the paper. If you add five more, I’ll sort out the derivations on the calculation paper as well.”

”No need, Agares.”

Arthur smiled as he picked up the calculation paper: ”I might be a semi-illiterate, not adept in mathematics or physics. But, as for the derivation on this calculation paper, I have already traded with someone else, a whole one hundred and fifty pieces. For a university student, that’s no small amount, enough for me to remember it forever.”

”Ha?” Agares was skeptical: ”Arthur, you’re playing this trick of lure again? You think I don’t know what you’re thinking? You want to force me to lower the price!”

Arthur smiled calmly: ”Agares, how about this, let’s make a bet. If I can derive the remaining process on this calculation paper, you write the paper for free. Conversely, if I fail, I’ll pay you double the souls. Want to consider it?”

Arthur’s counteroffer instantly made the Red Devil somewhat insecure, he suspiciously stared into Arthur’s eyes, trying to find signs of bluffing.

But no matter how he looked, he couldn’t see a hint of hesitation in Arthur, it was like the guy really could solve the problem.

But the Red Devil could never believe Arthur could crack this extended Euler equation, and Agares knew very well that the final outcome of this equation depended on the boundary conditions, meaning the derivation result wasn’t unique.

Agares knew Arthur’s mathematical skills very well.

As a country pig farmer from York, Sir Arthur Hastings had so far faced the greatest mathematical challenge of classifying piglets by gender. His daily math education was limited to simple arithmetic.

Now suddenly he claimed to be a French Academy of Sciences level mathematician? Who would believe that?

Agares hesitated for a long time and finally squinted his eyes and nodded slightly: ”Alright, but I have a condition, you must provide the derivation under at least three different boundary conditions.”

Unexpectedly, Arthur seemed relieved by Agares’ condition and nodded with a smile: ”Agares, you’re really considerate, I only know three. If you wanted a fourth, we wouldn’t have a deal today.”

Hearing this, Agares became more convinced that Arthur was tricking him: ”I say three, and you know three? Fine! I’ll bet with you!”

Arthur opened his pen, and as the tip touched the calculation paper, the feeling of his student days seemed to come over him again.

Bathed in the bright sunlight through the window, he retained his usual gleaming smile.

”How humbling, it seems today I’ll be making a small contribution to fluid mechanics.”

PS: Off to catch a plane, early update today.