165: Chapter 165: Gravity is just an illusion!

As the words fell, Professor Zhang's expression in Qingfeng Temple turned cold. "How could we not know? He's talking nonsense again!"

Meanwhile, in the physics faculty lounge at Huaqing University...

"Impossible! How could we not know what gravitational potential energy is?"

"Exactly! He's just talking nonsense this time!"

"Damn, my impression of him just tanked!"

"..."

Professor Ouyang Baili sighed helplessly as he watched the students' rebuttals.

"Don't be so quick to say he's wrong." He pointed at the sponge on the big screen. "The 'why' he's asking about is indeed something that is almost never covered in our physics textbooks."

The students fell silent immediately.

Professor Ouyang picked up a bottle of mineral water from the table, unscrewed it, took a sip, and then held the bottle up. "Our current physics is very much like a very good product manual."

He shook the bottle in his hand. "The manual tells you clearly: press this red button, and the indoor light will turn on; turn this black knob, and the phone's volume will increase."

"Our physics formulas, like E=mgh, are just like this manual. They tell you that if an object's height is increased, it will gain a certain amount of extra energy."

He put down the water bottle and looked around at everyone.

"But the manual never tells you—why does the indoor light turn on when I press the red button?"

"How does the circuit behind the light work?"

"How was the chip designed?"

"As students, you don't need to know the reasons behind it. You only need to know that if you flip the switch, the light comes on, and if you turn the knob, the volume goes up."

"And the phenomenon of gravitational potential energy that Xiaoyu's brother mentioned is as if we humans have obtained the manual for the universe. We use the formulas inside, and they work every single time."

"But as for the core 'circuit design' of the universe—that is, 'why does an object gain energy the higher it is placed?'"

"You think it's gravity? You couldn't be more wrong!"

"The question of what form this energy takes and where it is stored—whether it's in the bottle itself or in the air we breathe—is something we truly do not know. No scientist in the world would dare to say 'I know.' If anyone claimed to know, we would surely call them a madman!"

"Of course!" He paused for a moment and pointed at Jiang Zhe on the screen. "Except for him!"

The students who were rebutting and Professor Wu, who had been about to speak, were suddenly silenced by Professor Ouyang's words.

Professor Ouyang's gaze fell on the curious faces of Li Mo and Professor Guan. He couldn't help but remark, "Xiaoyu's brother's mockery of us scientists for 'not knowing' may be harsh, but he's not wrong. We only know how to use the formulas, but we don't know the underlying 'why' behind them."

"Just like why 1+1 equals 2. Is that something we discovered? No, it's something the universe has always told us!"

"He is researching the 'why' behind 1+1=2. Do you understand?"

These words left the once-noisy physics students speechless, their expressions gradually turning to shock.

At the same time, a concept emerged in everyone's minds...

The Time Stream that Xiaoyu's brother mentioned...

It seemed...

It had to exist!

If it didn't, things would actually be illogical!

"Hiss—"

More and more sounds of sharp intakes of breath filled the room, making even these professionals feel a creeping sense of dread.

At that moment, Jiang Zhe's voice came from the screen.

"The textbook tells you that when you place something higher, it gains something called potential energy, and the power within it increases."

"But where does this energy come from?"

"Is it granted by the height? Xiao Yu, if you were in the International Space Station, which is much higher than Mount Everest, why wouldn't the astronauts have massive potential energy? Instead, they're floating."

Jiang Zhe's words were like a whip that shattered the last of Xiao Yu's wishful thinking, leaving her momentarily stunned.

"Is it gravitational potential energy granted by Earth's gravity? Looking at the floating astronauts—no, it's not that at all!"

"So, the reason objects on Earth fall faster and faster isn't because Earth's gravity is granting them a force!"

Xiao Yu couldn't help but cover her mouth, her beautiful eyes shimmering.

Jiang Zhe didn't continue speaking. Instead, he took the dry sponge and dipped it into the fish tank. The sponge quickly absorbed the water, expanding and changing color at a visible rate until it became heavy.

Two and a half seconds later, he pulled the sponge out. What was once as light as nothing was now soaking wet and heavy, water dripping continuously onto the floor.

"Come, let me show you another 'where it comes from'!"

Jiang Zhe held the water-soaked yellow sponge in one hand and raised it in front of Xiao Yu.

"See? This sponge is heavier now, right?"

"That's because it's literally filled with water, which I 'sucked' from the fish tank."

"Now, here's the key part." Jiang Zhe's gaze sharpened as he slowly lifted the wet sponge from the table to above his head, increasing its height.

"Traditional physics tells children: lift this sponge high, and it will have gravitational potential energy."

"Just like a rock falling from a mountain gets faster and faster, its energy increasing."

"But in my view," he paused and continued explaining, "this action of 'lifting' is like taking this dry sponge and putting it into water from the air. It hasn't gained some abstract gravitational potential energy; rather, at the position above my head, the sponge has 'absorbed' something real from the surrounding environment!"

"What did it absorb?" Jiang Zhe stared at the dripping water. "Naturally, it absorbed the energy of the Time Stream."

"Time itself has always had energy, just like the water in the fish tank. It's always there—it's just that the water in the tank is usually so uniform that we don't feel it."

He traced his left hand across the surface of the water in the tank.

"But near a massive object like Earth, the distribution of this Time Stream energy is no longer uniform. The higher you go, the 'denser' this energy becomes, and the easier it is for objects to 'absorb and store' it."

"So, by lifting an object,"

He raised the wet sponge above his head again. "Essentially, I'm moving it into a region where the Time Stream energy is denser."

"While above my head, it automatically 'soaked up' extra Time Stream energy, just like a sponge absorbing water."

"This extra energy it 'absorbed' and 'carried with it' is what the textbooks call gravitational potential energy!"

As soon as he said this, countless viewers gasped.

In that instant, they felt as if a shackle in their minds had been forcibly broken, yet they couldn't refute him.

Because scientists don't know how gravitational potential energy actually comes about; they can only attribute it to gravity.

And scientists tell students, "The higher an object falls from, the greater its force!"

Jiang Zhe, however, was dissecting where gravitational potential energy actually comes from. Could it really be obtained from time?

While everyone was thinking, Jiang Zhe let go. The water-soaked sponge hit the floor with a "thud," splashing water everywhere.

"Xiao Yu, why did this sponge fall?" Jiang Zhe pointed at the wet sponge on the floor. "It's not that Earth's gravity is pulling it; it's that the Time Stream it 'soaked up' inside is like water—it can no longer hold it."

"It must 'release' this excess energy to balance itself with the Time Stream of the ground environment."

Having reached this point, he paused for a moment before continuing:

"So, gravitational potential energy is the time energy 'recharged' by an object at a high altitude; Free Fall is the object releasing that time energy."

"Time is not just a backdrop; it is the most fundamental energy reservoir in the universe!"

"Every time we lift something, we are helping it 'recharge'."

"For example, if I were to jump from five thousand meters up, I would definitely be smashed more thoroughly than if I jumped from four thousand meters. This has never been about gravitational acceleration, but because I would have more Time Stream energy in my body at five thousand meters."

As his voice faded, the living room fell into a dead silence.

Xiao Yu stared blankly at the puddle on the floor, feeling a bit dazed, yet also as if some shackle had been unlocked.

...

P.S. This is all real.

However, these are not the author's views, but those of Nikolai Kozyrev, who challenged Einstein's perspective.

Einstein's theory can explain a lot—say, nine-tenths—but Nikolai Kozyrev's time-energy theory explains less than Einstein's, maybe only one-tenth, yet it can still explain many things.

He came up with this theory while in prison, and he anticipated nuclear fusion many years ahead of his time, back when people only knew about chemical and thermal energy.

There's another piece of evidence that proves Nikolai Kozyrev was entirely correct, but I won't write it in the story.

What I can reveal is:

[The dyson sphere the protagonist observed with the super telescope—that star suddenly went out after the protagonist observed it.]

[Just like the protagonist's action—how could a single observation cause a dyson sphere several light-years away to go out? Something must have reached there with zero time delay.]

[The star was fine originally, but it suddenly went out after being observed by the protagonist. What I want to express is similar to Kozyrev's evidence. It's hard to say in the book, since the protagonist has his own super telescope and observed evidence of a dyson sphere suddenly going out upon observation.]

[The evidence in reality is almost identical to this, just without the dyson sphere observed by the protagonist!]