Shaw felt overwhelmed,
He knew Lu Shi was formidable, but he hadn't expected him to be this formidable. It was only the first day as a guest lecturer, and he had already angered the entire school.
Chelen, on the other hand, couldn't help but laugh,
"Impressive! Truly impressive!"
Shaw was speechless,
"What's so impressive about this?"
Chelen said, "Severe illnesses require strong medicine for a chance at recovery. Mr. Lu... Professor Lu understands this. If he were to speak meekly and tepidly, he wouldn't be able to control these students below, and he would only be looked down upon."
There was some truth to that,
but...
"Isn't this medicine a bit too strong?!"
Shaw was still very concerned.
Chelen followed with a "Hmm" and said, "Let's see how Professor Lu handles it. I believe in him."
Shaw quipped, "Of course, you believe in him. After all, you're the one who dubbed him the 'Founder of New Historiography'."
Implicitly, if Lu Shi were to make significant contributions to history, Chelen could rise along with him.
Chelen smiled awkwardly.
In fact, when he first saw Lu Shi, he was also very surprised by Lu Shi's youth,
But after having actual interactions with Lu Shi, any contemptuous feelings naturally disappeared.
Chelen expressed some regret, "If possible, I would be very willing to do some academic research with Professor Lu. It's just that, for some reason, although he supports my research direction, he is unwilling to mentor me. Sigh..."
"To do some academic research with Professor Lu" was clearly a subtle way of saying that he wanted Lu Shi as his mentor.
Shaw glanced at Chelen,
"With your research, saying 'a maritime empire can become a continental power, and then control the oceans in the guise of a continental power,' this idea is quite popular in Britain. But you also pointed out, 'Germany's combination of land and sea is an important condition for vying for the status of a major power,' isn't that asking for trouble? Professor Lu has met the Queen, how could he possibly associate with you?"
Chelen was taken aback,
"Professor Lu has met the Queen? Wait, how do you know?"
Shaw didn't respond, his gaze shifting to the platform, saying, "Alright, let's see how he resolves this crisis."
At that moment, Lu Shi was under siege,
The students were very dissatisfied.
Lu Shi raised his hand and said, "Quiet."
Of course, no one paid attention to this, and the students continued as they pleased.
Lu Shi didn't mind and stood there calmly, quietly watching the students below perform.
Quarreling, one against many, was futile,
Gradually, the crowd quieted down.
Everyone's gaze was fixed on Lu Shi, brewing some kind of emotion, as if they were ready to refute whatever Lu Shi said.
Lu Shi raised his voice,
"Dear students, don't blindly follow authority to oppose authority."
This statement left the students speechless on the spot,
For a moment, no one said a word.
Lu Shi smiled and said, "You naturally believe that a young person lacks knowledge and that only the elderly are fit to be lecturers, right?"
There was nothing to deny about this.
Someone immediately nodded,
"That's right."
Lu Shi smiled,
"You naturally believe that a young person lacks knowledge and that only the elderly are fit to be lecturers, right?"
Shaw nodded in approval,
Using the opponent's spear to attack his shield, Lu Shi's debating skills were excellent.
The students weren't completely confused,
Someone said, "But that's different. The elderly are more suitable to be lecturers, that's the result of logical reasoning, because knowledge accumulation takes time!"
Lu Shi's smile grew wider as he said, "I can return this statement to you intact. Best-selling authors are more suitable to be lecturers, that's the result of logical reasoning, because sales accumulation requires knowledge, and knowledge accumulation takes time!"
Both statements seemed logical but had significant flaws, belonging to the category of arguing for the sake of arguing.
Lu Shi shrugged,
"If we continue like this, it'll become an endless entanglement... Hmm... Let me think... Have you heard of Gauss? The Prince of Mathematics, Gauss."
The students looked at each other, not understanding why a humanities and social sciences scholar would discuss a mathematician.
Lu Shi continued, "I believe you've all heard that story. When Gauss was in elementary school, the math teacher gave the class a calculation problem, 1+2+3+...+99+100, asking the students to add up the numbers one by one..."
This story was very famous, to the extent that the formula for the sum of an arithmetic series studied in elementary and middle school was also called the "Gauss sum."
The students were very speechless,
It was hard to generate interest in something so clichéd.
Unexpectedly, Lu Shi made a sudden turn,
"Dear students, I want to ask you a question. When you encountered this story, did your first reaction consider Gauss as the inventor of the arithmetic series sum formula?"
Everyone was taken aback by Lu Shi's novel question, something they had never considered before.
As a result, someone asked a more innovative question, "Oh, isn't it? Isn't the arithmetic series sum formula invented by Gauss?"
For a moment, almost everyone's eyes fell on that student.
Lu Shi tried hard to hold back his laughter and explained, "Classmate, Gauss was born in 1777. By that time, calculus had already been developed. How could he not know such a simple arithmetic series sum formula?"
The student who asked the question blushed,
"I studied geography, not math... ah... don't get me wrong, I'm not from King's College."
The students from King's College turned their heads away, pretending not to recognize him.
Lu Shi tried hard to hold back his laughter,
After a long while, he said, "Even if you're not familiar with the history of mathematics, we should still have a basic ability to make logical judgments. Do you believe that before Gauss, people like Archimedes and Newton would have just blindly added up numbers like this?"
The crowd fell silent.
They were all captivated by the questions Lu Shi raised.
Shaw's eyes were full of approval,
The students instinctively believed that Lu Shi mentioned Gauss to illustrate that ambition is not determined by age,
As a result, Lu Shi made a sudden turn, which caught everyone's attention immediately,
To have such an effect in teaching was truly successful!
Niccolò Machiavelli and Solomon couldn't help but look at each other,
Niccolò asked, "Did you think like that when you were young?"
Solomon nodded,
"You too?"
The two of them realized something interesting, which was that when they were young and encountered the story of Gauss, they had all assumed that Gauss was the inventor of the arithmetic series sum formula.
But the flaws in this conclusion were so obvious,
Just as Lu Shi said, if something so simple had to wait until Gauss was born to be discovered, how primitive would mathematics have been before the 18th century?
Leibniz,
The Bernoulli brothers,
Euler,
...
Where would these giants of mathematics fit in?
Lu Shi said, "This is what I want to talk about today. Reading stories is like reading historical materials. You need basic logical judgment and reasoning skills, as well as consideration from various perspectives. Although I am called the 'Founder of New Historiography' by the headmaster, I believe that this interdisciplinary view of history should be called 'modern historiography.'"
The students listened quietly, seemingly forgetting to question Lu Shi's ability.
Lu Shi smirked,
Little White Rabbit is really good at tricking people...