Chapter 548 - 254: At Kang Bridge, Waving My Sleeve, Summoning a Dark Cloud (Part 1)

Seeing this situation.

Faraday and the others’ faces looked rather calm, almost without much change.

This is a common phenomenon in the lab; in 1850, the scientific community was not unfamiliar with high-frequency oscillating circuits...that is, LC circuits.

But the next second—

The expressions on Faraday and the others’ faces suddenly changed dramatically, even...somewhat twisted!

Stokes even let out a high note comparable to a C5, sounding a bit distorted:

"Oh my God, what...what is that?"

No one was in the mood to mock Stokes’ duck-like voice; at this moment, everyone’s gaze was fixed on the receiver not far away:

At this very moment—

Every time the generator burst with a blue electric spark, the copper rings on the receiver would flash with electricity!

Under the pull of some unknown force, the receiver, with no wires connected...

Produced an electric current!

Faraday even walked right up to the receiver, ignoring everyone else, peering closely at the flashing sparks, murmuring:

"Jesus..."

The whole process lasted several minutes; finally, Xu Yun, feeling the effect was good enough, stepped forward and turned off the switch.

The scene was utterly silent, looking like someone had hit pause in a movie.

After a while—

Faraday paced back to the group, cast a complicated glance at Maxwell, and said:

"Maxwell, your guess was correct. There’s a potential difference on the receiver."

Maxwell scratched his hair sheepishly, grinning nonstop.

Then Faraday looked over at Xu Yun again, his gaze filled with meaning.

How many times today has he felt surprised by this Eastern man?

Indeed—

Even though these experiments should be credited to Fat Fish, Xu Yun could reproduce them so skillfully that his theoretical level obviously needed no further explanation.

Back when he heard from Hewell that Xu Yun got his admission slot using a handwritten letter from Young, Faraday had felt—though never said aloud—that the guy lacked "sense of decorum."

But now...

He realized he was ridiculously, outrageously wrong.

Faraday then took a deep breath, pulled his thoughts back to reality, and asked Xu Yun:

"Luo Feng, what’s this phenomenon called?"

He hadn’t asked for the explanation, which showed that Faraday had already sorted out a lot in his mind in this short span.

Xu Yun was silent for a moment, then gave it a name:

"Photoelectric effect."

That’s right.

The third experiment Xu Yun had chosen was the famous photoelectric effect!

In the history of human science—

There are really only two phenomena that can be considered core evidence against wave theory:

The Compton effect and the photoelectric effect.

The Compton effect requires X-rays, which the current tech tree in this scenario hasn’t reached yet.

So from the very beginning, Xu Yun’s options were actually set.

The photoelectric effect was discovered by Hertz in 1887, and ultimately explained by Einstein.

Actually—

The definition of the photoelectric effect is quite simple.

It’s about shining light onto a metal plate, where electrons inside certain substances absorb energy and escape, forming a current.

Basically, light generates electricity.

Later school experiments with the photoelectric effect usually use a zinc plate as the subject, hooked up to an electroscope that can open and close.

Then the teacher shines light on the metal plate, and the electroscope gradually opens, which means electricity was produced by light.

More conscientious teachers will even bring out a rod rubbed with fur to give it a negative charge, touch the electroscope, and the electroscope closes, which means the metal is positively charged, and so on...

But actually—

The significance of the photoelectric effect goes far beyond its obvious surface.

Otherwise, Xu Yun wouldn’t bother redoing the photoelectric effect after the photovoltaic effect:

Everyone nowadays knows the photovoltaic effect and photoelectric effect are two different things, one is at the surface, the other is internal.

But back in 1850, before electrons had even been discovered, the two phenomena seemed somewhat similar.

Same principle:

Xu Yun’s goal is to shake the foundations of classical physics, big time...

What happened now was shocking enough, but still far from shaking the whole edifice of physics.

Back to reality—

"Photoelectric effect..."

Faraday repeated the term, looking thoughtful:

"Electricity from light, light from electricity...what a good name..."

But as he pondered, Faraday suddenly furrowed his brow, realizing something:

"Wait, Luo Feng, that’s not right."

"The photoelectric effect is surprising, but strictly speaking, it seems to just be an extension of the photovoltaic effect in air."

"It can’t really refute the wave theory of light, nor does it disrupt the existing framework of physics, so all those things you said before..."

Hearing Faraday say this, some of the other professors started to catch on.

True—

Xu Yun had spoken so seriously before, they’d thought it was going to reshape their worldview, maybe bring down the whole framework of science.

Some professors with especially vivid imaginations were even ready to ’die for the truth.’

But...

This is it?

Seeing Faraday so puzzled, Xu Yun didn’t explain too much.

He took something from Maxwell, placed it in his palm, and held it out to Faraday:

"Mr. Faraday, don’t be so hasty, why don’t you check this out first?"

......