Chen Jingrun, a famous mathematician, has made great contributions in conquering Goldbach's conjecture and establishing Chen's theorem, so that many people affectionately call him "the prince of mathematics". But who would have thought that his achievement originated from a story?
1937, diligent Chen Jingrun was admitted to Huaying College in Fuzhou. At this time, during the period of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Professor Shen Yuan, director of the Department of Aeronautical Engineering in Tsinghua University, returned to Fujian to attend the funeral, unwilling to stay in his hometown because of the war. Several universities got the news and wanted to invite Professor Shen to give lectures. He declined the invitation. As he is an alumnus of Huaying, he came to this middle school to teach mathematics to his classmates in order to report to his alma mater.
One day, Teacher Shen Yuan told us a story in math class: "A Frenchman discovered an interesting phenomenon 200 years ago: 6=3+3, 8=5+3, 10=5+5, 12=5+7, 28=5+23. Every even number greater than 4 can be expressed as the sum of two odd numbers. Because this conclusion has not been proved, it is still a guess. Euler said: Although I can't prove it, I am sure this conclusion is correct.
It is like a beautiful light ring, shining with dazzling brilliance in front of us not far away. ..... "Chen Jingrun stare eyes, absorbed.
From then on, Chen Jingrun became interested in this wonderful question. In his spare time, he likes going to the library. He not only read the counseling books in middle schools, but also eagerly read the textbooks of mathematics and physics courses in these universities. Therefore, he got the nickname "bookworm".
Interest is the first teacher. It is such a mathematical story that aroused Chen Jingrun's interest and his diligence and made him a great mathematician.
At the age of 27, Gao Xiao Jones went to primary school. The teacher's name is Butner, and he is a famous local mathematician. This young teacher from the city always thinks that children in the countryside are idiots and their talents can't be displayed. In a math class in grade three, Butner lost his temper with the children again, and then wrote a long list of formulas on the blackboard: 81297+81495+81693+…+100701+69.
"wow! How many figures are there in total? How to calculate? " The more nervous the students are, the more they can't figure out how to calculate.
Butner is very proud. He knew that the last number was 100, which was larger than the previous number 198. Even if these naughty students do their calculations obediently all morning, they won't work out the results.
Unexpectedly, in a short time, Gao Xiaosi came over with a small slate with the answer written on it and said, "Teacher, I have finished the calculation." Without looking up, Butner said angrily, "Go, don't be ridiculous. Anyone who wants to scribble numbers must be careful! " Say that finish, waved a hammer fist.
But little gauss insisted on not leaving and said, "teacher, I'm not kidding." And gently put the small slate on the platform. Butner took one look and was too surprised to speak. Unexpectedly, this 10-year-old child worked out the correct answer so quickly.
It turned out that little Gauss did not add one by one like other children, but observed carefully, used his head and found the law. He found that the sum of two numbers at the beginning and the end of a figure is the sum of 182 196,50, and182196 can be quickly calculated by multiplication.
Little Gauss's incredible mathematical talent made Butner admire and feel guilty. From then on, he never looked down on children from poor families. He bought many math books for little Gauss and asked his young assistant Battier to help little Gauss learn math.