Chapter 264 Mathematics Is Really Interesting

Princeton University, Library.

Lying on the table, Hardy pressed the center of his brows with a headache, and yelled in a painful voice.

"That person is simply a devil. This is an impossible task... Is there really a human being who can handle these things in a month and a half?"

There are six reference books piled up in front of him, including the "introductory" Hardy's "Introduction to Number Theory" and Dirichlet's "Lecture Notes on Number Theory" from the shallower to the deeper. Not just number theory stuff, but stuff like functional analysis, algebraic geometry, differential topology, etc.

Although before coming here, considering the name of this instructor, Hardy had done a lot of previews, but he never thought that there would be such a huge amount of learning tasks waiting for him as soon as he stepped through this door.

Fortunately, he had made some preparations, otherwise he might not even be able to touch the door now.

Qin Yue, who was sitting opposite Hardy, was much calmer, at least he didn't think about "whether it can be done" or not, which has nothing to do with the subject, and carefully cooperated with the printed documents to study the "Lecture Notes on Number Theory" in his hand.

Although his speed of flipping books is not as fast as that of Hardy, the victory is sustained.

From the beginning to the present, it has hardly stopped.

Sighing, Hardy gave up completely and asked with a headache.

"Qin, are all the professors in Huaguo so scary?"

Qin Yue: "horror?"

Hardy nodded seriously: "That's right, when I was in Brazil, my math scores were always the first in our high school, and everyone thought I was a genius. When I came to Columbia University, I saw many people who were more talented than me. But the things in the course are still very easy for me, and it doesn’t even take me a lot of time to do it easily.”

Speaking of this, Hardy sighed in frustration: "However, when I got here, I even began to doubt life..."

Qin Yue didn't know how to comfort the young man, pushed his glasses, smiled embarrassedly and said, "Maybe it's because this is Princeton?"

To be honest, the professors at Kaida are not so strict.

But he has lived like this for four years, so he is used to it.

"Professors in Princeton are absolutely impossible to be so strict. I asked the seniors who played football with me yesterday. Professor Lu Zhou is definitely an exception." Hardy shook his head, paused for a moment, suddenly thought of something, and looked serious He asked, "Speaking of which, Qin, I noticed that you have started reading the second book. Do you have any skills? Or have you studied these things before?"

"No," Qin Yue shook his head, "It's also the first time I've come into contact with these things."

Like him at most, did a similar preview before coming.

Hardy said in an unbelievable tone: "This is impossible! Wait, you shouldn't be back in the dormitory and still reading, God... How much time do you spend studying in a day?"

Qin Yue thought for a while, and replied: "Apart from eating and sleeping?"

Hardy: "..."

The topic seems to be out of the question...

...

It is indeed very difficult to complete six books in one and a half months, and Lu Zhou actually knew this when he assigned this task.

Therefore, when he made a training plan for his students, he did not set the expected effect very high. That is, as long as they can digest half of the knowledge points, they can be regarded as passing the level.

As for the remaining knowledge points and the consolidation and strengthening of the knowledge already mastered, you can learn slowly while participating in specific research topics.

After all, there is a certain lag in the things in the books. To put it bluntly, they are only used for getting started. When it comes to research in frontier fields, the reference materials are basically the literature of the same industry, and the things in the books will be used less.

What Lu Zhou didn't expect was that less than a week after entering August, someone completed his task ahead of schedule.

After learning the news, his mood can no longer be described in terms of surprise.

Rather surprise...

It seems that he has found a treasure.

"...Your talent is astonishing. I thought it would be pretty good if you could solve five or even four of these ten questions. It seems that I underestimated you."

Averting his eyes from the test paper in his hand, Lu Zhou looked at Vera who was standing opposite his desk, his expression was full of surprise.

The test questions are all made by himself, and it is impossible to memorize the answers. Although the ten questions are not particularly difficult, if she can do all of them correctly, there is no doubt that she has thoroughly grasped the knowledge points in the six books she assigned.

Suddenly being praised, Vera smiled a little shyly, and said modestly.

"I have already read the four books in the list you gave me when I was at Berkeley. Maybe I was lucky."

"It's not a matter of luck," Lu Zhou put the test paper on the side of the table, and said with a smile, "Congratulations on passing my test. From now on, you have become a member of my research team!"

A smile of joy appeared on Vera's face, which was exactly what she had always dreamed of.

After pausing for a moment, Lu Zhou continued: "I will send the email about the topic to your mailbox. Although you will not officially apply for the topic until September, you can think about it first during this period. This is a very important topic. Interesting proposition, I believe you will be interested."

Vera nodded earnestly, her golden single ponytail swaying slightly like a squirrel's tail.

"I see, is there anything else?"

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "No, you can go back first."

Putting her things into her schoolbag, Vera happily said goodbye to Lu Zhou, then turned and walked out of the office.

Looking at the slightly thin back, Lu Zhou suddenly remembered something and said.

"By the way, there is one more thing."

Vera who walked to the door stopped, and turned her head to cast a confused look at Lu Zhou.

"My statement may be a bit presumptuous, I hope you don't mind," Lu Zhou opened the drawer, took out a document from it, and put it gently on the table, "I understand that your financial situation may not be very good, so from Princeton University inquired about the scholarship. You can take this material back and fill it out. It is best to give it to me tomorrow, and I will apply for it for you.”

PhD scholarships are relatively easy to get, but master scholarships, especially full scholarships, are hard to come by.

Generally speaking, unless you follow a very good mentor or get a very good recommendation letter, you will get half the prize at most.

Especially in a place like Princeton, there are a lot of great people, and each one is better than the other. The competition can no longer be described as fierce.

Looking at those eyes full of surprise and disbelief, Lu Zhou paused for a moment, then continued.

"I hope you don't delay your studies because of financial burdens, especially don't go to fast food restaurants and other places to wash dishes and act as cheap labor. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this, but I just hope you will always remember that your knowledge is Your greatest asset. If the full scholarship is not enough, I can help you apply for a part-time teaching assistant job, starting with some basic work."

After receiving the material from Lu Zhou, Vera lowered her head and didn't speak for a long time.

Holding the material tightly in her little hand, her eyes were slightly red, and she suddenly bowed deeply to Lu Zhou.

"Thank you! (Ukrainian)"

Before the bewildered Lu Zhou realized what was going on, the little girl turned and ran out the door, the sound of her footsteps gradually fading away.

The expression was a little weird. Lu Zhou carefully recalled what he said before, and he was sure that he had never said anything to offend anyone.

In fact, to be honest, because I was always complained by Chen Xuejie for being too "straightforward" when chatting online occasionally, when he said some important things now, he would think about it in advance.

Thinking of the little girl's slightly red eyes before going out, Lu Zhou felt a headache.

Obviously did a good job.

But please don't get me wrong...

Otherwise, that would be a real headache for him.

Shaking his head, Lu Zhou decided not to think about these troublesome things, and took out his phone to check the time.

It's almost time to go to lunch, too.

Stretching, Lu Zhou stood up from his office chair, glanced at the completed opening report on the computer screen, and a smile could not help but appear on the corner of his mouth.

Hail conjecture, also known as Kakutani conjecture, the legendary mathematical black hole! It is like a real black hole, devouring all natural numbers.

The general view in modern mathematics is that it is not time to solve this problem, but now that Goldbach's conjecture has been solved, and the theoretical tools born from it are powerful enough, Lu Zhou feels that he can try to challenge it.

Thinking of this challenging problem, he was full of energy from head to toe.

Sure enough, mathematics is interesting.