Why doesn't the top fall off when it rotates? Of the thousands of people who play gyro, probably few can answer this question correctly. Indeed, the rotation of the gyro is very interesting and mysterious.
Gyroscope has high research value in science. Throw the gyro into the air. It can keep its axis in the original direction. Using this characteristic of gyroscope to manufacture directional gyroscope, it is widely used in navigation, aviation and aerospace fields.
However, the research of gyro motion, or in more academic terms, the problem of rigid body moving around a fixed point has a magical history.
In A.D. 1888, the French Academy of Sciences held the third prize of international essay writing, offering a reward of 3,000 francs to collect papers on the motion of rigid bodies around fixed points from all over the world. In the previous decades, in view of the importance of this issue, the French Academy of Sciences has defended its thesis twice with the same prize money. Many outstanding mathematicians tried to solve this problem, but they all failed. The bonus points of these two articles are still intact. To this end, the French Academy of Sciences decided to collect papers for the third time, which made many promising mathematicians eager to try. But on the day of judging, the judges were shocked. They found an article that stood out among countless ordinary people. This is an outstanding work full of wisdom. Every step and every conclusion is full of extraordinary talents. In view of its particularly high scientific value, the judges made an exception and decided to increase the prize money from the original 3,000 francs to 5,000 francs.
The judging is over. I opened the sealed name, and it turned out that the winner was a Russian woman, who was the heroine of the mathematics kingdom and the famous female mathematician Sophia.
Turning to the history of world science, there are only a handful of women among scientists, and even fewer women mathematicians. Before the 20th century, only Kovalevskaya could be recorded in the history of mathematics. And her struggle experience is full of legend.
Sophia was born into a general family. Thanks to the enlightenment of her uncle Peter, she became interested in mathematics. But her father, a retired soldier, with an ancient prejudice against women, opposed her daughter's study of mathematics. In this case, Sophia had to hide in her room and secretly read a math book. This mysterious learning atmosphere has increased Sophia's curiosity and thirst for knowledge, and her enterprise has become stronger. At this time she was only 13 years old. Over the past year, a physics book by Kiritov has attracted Sophia's attention, because Professor Kiritov is her neighbor. Looking through the professor's works, she found that the book used a lot of knowledge about triangles, but at this time triangles were a strange world to her. So she started from drawing strings and deduced a series of trigonometric formulas by herself, which is undoubtedly equivalent to the re-creation of a branch history of mathematics! This superhuman talent surprised Professor Kilitov, who seemed to see the emergence of a new Pascal. Pascal, a French mathematician, was recognized as a child prodigy when he was young. After repeated persuasion by Professor Kiritov, Sophia's father finally agreed to let her go abroad to study calculus and other courses. So Sophia can study hard for two years. Just when she was eager to go to college for further study, her father ordered her to be recalled. The father who was a general will never understand that daughter and mathematics are two intolerable words, and her daughter has grown up.
In order to continue her studies, Sophia used the most effective tricks of her girlhood. She decided to get married. Her husband is a young and enlightened biologist. After marriage, she and her husband both came to Petersburg. But once there, the beautiful fantasy was immediately shattered, because Russian universities at that time did not recruit girls.
Many things in the world often backfire. Marriage not only brings joy to Sophie, but also brings her distress. Soon, Sophia? Kovalevskaya became a mother. Young life and heavy housework played down her enthusiasm for mathematics. One day, there was no sticker on the wall of the children's room, so she tore it off and stuck it with the mathematician Osterloh Gradsky's book. Unexpectedly, various symbols on these scattered pages rekindled Kovalevskaya's enthusiasm for learning mathematics. With her husband's support, she bought many math books, studied day and night, and took part in informal courses at Petersburg University. With the progress of her studies, her desire for further study is even stronger!
1870, at the age of 20, Kovalevskaya decided to go to Berlin, where there was an institution she admired-Berlin University. But she didn't know that at that time, the concept of discrimination against women had no national boundaries, and Berlin University refused to accept this foreign girl. However, Kovalevskaya did not stop there. She found a famous mathematician, Wilstrass, who taught at the University of Berlin, and put forward her own requirements directly to him. The professor, who is nearly sixty years old, is very confused. He looked at the foreign girl suspiciously, and then asked her a rather profound elliptic function question, which the professor had been thinking about just now. Kovalevskaya gave the answer on the spot. Wonderful conclusion, ingenious idea, extraordinary opinion! Wilstrass was shocked! The professor made an exception and promised to accept her as a private student. Under the guidance of famous teachers, Kovalevskaya grew rapidly.
1873, Kovalevskaya published three papers on partial differential equations. Because of the creativity and value of the paper,1July, 874, the University of G? ttingen made an exception and awarded Dr. Kovalevskaya's degree without a defense. She was only 24 years old that year.
1875, Kovalevskaya returned to her native land with enthusiasm, but what was waiting for her was indeed infinite sadness. Tsarist Russia decided not to allow women to go to the podium, and there was no place for women in research institutions. In this way, the son and daughter of the Russian genius sadly interrupted the research for three years. Then it was delayed for two years because of the birth of the younger daughter. 1880, a scientific conference was held in Petersburg, and the famous mathematician Chebyshev asked her to provide an article for the conference. She dug out an unpublished paper on Abel integral from the bottom of the box and submitted it to the conference. However, this article, which has been published for six years, caused a sensation at the press conference.
1888 12 Kovalevskaya was awarded the Boston Prize by Flange Academy of Sciences in recognition of her outstanding research on rigid body motion. 1889, the Swedish Academy Science Award was also awarded to Kovalevskaya. In June of the same year 165438+ 10, the Russian Academy of Sciences finally gave up the old rule that "women can't be academicians" under the great achievements of this female mathematician and the firm demands of a group of mathematicians headed by Chebyshev. This old car is bigger than Chevrolet. He excitedly sent the following telegram to Kovalevskaya:
"After amending the articles of association without precedent, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has just elected you as an academician of communication. I am very happy to see that one of my most urgent and just demands has been realized. "
189 1 At the beginning of the year, Kovalevskaya fell ill on his way back to Stockholm from France. Because of the doctor's misdiagnosis, the ruthless illness took away her brilliant life. She was only 42 years old at this time.