286: Chapter 286: Brother, you can't underestimate the wisdom of the ancients.

Immediately after, the barrage of comments exploded like a tidal wave.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!"

"The height of the Pyramids is one-billionth of the distance between the Sun and the Earth?"

"149 meters x 1 billion = 149 million kilometers. The distance between the Sun and the Earth is 149.6 million kilometers. There's almost no margin of error!"

"How did the people of Ancient Egypt, over four thousand years ago, know the distance between the Earth and the Sun?"

"They didn't even know the Earth was round, did they?"

"No, they did!!"

"..."

Huaqing University, Physics Department faculty dormitory.

Ouyang Baili stood up abruptly. "The distance between the Sun and the Earth? The height of the Pyramids is one-billionth of the distance between the Sun and the Earth?"

Li Mo typed rapidly on his keyboard in front of the computer. "The distance between the Sun and the Earth is 1 astronomical unit = 149,597,870 kilometers ≈ 149.59787 million kilometers. 149 meters x 1 billion = 149 million kilometers. The margin of error is about 0.4%. Damn, it's really very close!"

Professor Wu Ming gasped, his face full of astonishment. "This is a coincidence, right?"

Guan Jingming said thoughtfully: "Pi can be explained by coincidence, and height can also be explained by coincidence. What are the odds of two coincidences appearing on the same building at the same time?"

After he finished speaking, the four of them looked at each other. Although shocked, it could still be answered with mathematics.

Gusu High School, Principal's office.

Ren Xiaoyao was so excited he was incoherent. "It was me who calculated it—no, that's not what I meant to say; no; this is exactly what I was about to say. I thought of it, but Jiang Zhe beat me to it!"

Principal Fu said: "A building from 2560 BC, an accurate Pi, a precise Sun-Earth ratio—this is too shocking! What's shocking is the wisdom of the people of Ancient Egypt!"

Old Wang said with some surprise: "If these aren't coincidences, then the people of Ancient Egypt, or rather, the people who taught them this knowledge...?"

Xiao Wang quickly took over the conversation, "Who could it be?"

There is one possibility: it is the survivors of Atlantis.

Of course, there is also another possibility: everyone has underestimated the wisdom of the ancients, and it is purely a crystallization of humanity.

Regardless of who it was, this shock, this incredibility, is real.

Kyoto, Qingfeng Temple.

Zheng Ming stared fixedly at the big screen and shook his head repeatedly. "The distance between the Sun and the Earth, how is this possible?"

Jin Xianmeng narrowed his eyes and said deeply:

"In 2560 BC, the people of Ancient Egypt could not have known the distance between the Sun and the Earth."

"Because it wasn't until Ancient Greece, more than two thousand years later, that someone first made a rough estimate of the distance from the Earth to the Sun."

"And the people of Ancient Egypt not only knew it, but they reduced that distance by a billion times and built their own Pyramids."

"Is this... mathematics that Ancient Egypt never made public, or is it actually true?"

Celestial Master Zhang was full of smiles. "Wonderful, wonderful. The numbers of heaven and earth are hidden within the square inch!"

He looked at Zheng Ming, his tone somewhat meaningful. "Old Zheng, do you still think this was discovered by the people of Ancient Egypt themselves?"

Zheng Ming really wanted to refute, using all the knowledge he had learned.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "No, there is a trick!!!"

"Hm?" The other two looked at him.

Zheng Ming quickly took out his mobile phone, his fingers operating rapidly on the screen, drawing a picture of the Earth-Moon and Earth-Sun, and then drew a stick figure on the ground.

"Look, the people of Ancient Egypt could completely measure the distance between the Sun and the Earth using simple geometric methods!"

"They must have known that the Earth was round, and they knew that the Earth's shadow was round during a lunar eclipse; this was confirmed by the Greeks as early as the 5th century BC, but the people of Ancient Egypt might have known it even earlier!"

"Then, they could use the changes in the moon's phases to measure it!"

"When the Earth is directly between the Sun and the Moon, which is during a total lunar eclipse, they can measure the diameter of our Earth's shadow."

"The diameter of the Earth's shadow is about 2.5 times the diameter of the Moon, and the angular diameter of the Moon is 0.5 degrees."

"Using this data, they could calculate the distance from the Earth to the Moon."

"Then, using the Earth-Moon distance and the angular diameter of the Sun—the Sun is also 0.5 degrees—and then using similar triangles, they could calculate the distance from the Earth to the Sun!"

Speaking of this, he was surprised by himself. If he hadn't pushed himself, he would have almost forgotten the knowledge from his school days.

"Although the margin of error would be a bit larger, if the observations were precise enough, it is entirely possible to approach the current true value!"

Jin Xianmeng took the phone in surprise and carefully looked at the schematic diagram and derivation process drawn by Zheng Ming.

After a moment of silence, there was also a light in his eyes. "Brother Zheng, your derivation actually makes a lot of sense!"

Celestial Master Zhang also leaned over to look. "Oh, if that's the case, is it true that the people of Ancient Egypt could have calculated it themselves?"

Zheng Ming nodded slightly with pride. "That goes without saying!"

He looked at Jiang Zhe on the big screen, his tone becoming more and more confident. "It's just the Sun-Earth distance!"

"Archimedes said, give him a fulcrum and he could pry up the entire Earth."

"Why do we have to underestimate the wisdom of the ancients?"

"Why must we attribute some advanced discoveries to alien civilizations or lost ancient civilizations?"

"The people of Ancient Egypt, the Ancient Babylonians, the people of Ancient India, and our own ancestors of the Xia Kingdom; their achievements in mathematics and astronomy were already astonishing!"

"The 'Zhou Bi Suan Jing' contains the Pythagorean theorem, which is I don't know how many years earlier than Pythagoras!"

"So, this data from the Pyramids could very well have been calculated by the people of Ancient Egypt themselves, and there is no need for any Atlantis!"

After listening, Jin Xianmeng smiled and gave Zheng Ming a thumbs up. "Brother Zheng, you're not bad either. I thought you were just a master of Sinology, I didn't expect you to keep up with this too."

Celestial Master Zhang also nodded with a smile. "Old Zheng's performance today is good."

Zheng Ming held his head high with pride, his face full of self-satisfaction.

Inside the big screen.

In the living room, Xiao Yu stared at the 149 meters on the screen, her mind buzzing.

But soon, she exhaled a turbid breath and forced herself to calm down.

No, there's a problem!

She couldn't just accept whatever her brother said, otherwise she would be a puppet.

She raised her head and looked at Jiang Zhe, her eyes carrying a hint of cunning. "Brother, I don't believe it."

"Hm?"

Xiao Yu said with a heavy face: "149 meters, multiplied by 1 billion, is approximately the distance between the Sun and the Earth; this is indeed very accurate."

"Pi, the relationship between the perimeter and height of the Pyramids—this is also very accurate."

Then her expression tightened, and she changed the subject. "However, all of this can be attributed to the mathematical wisdom of the ancients!"

"Brother, you told me privately before that in our country's ancient 'Zhuangzi: Tianxia Chapter', there is a sentence: 'A rod one foot long, if you take half of it every day, it will never be exhausted'."

"The meaning of this sentence is that if you take half of a one-foot-long wooden stick every day, you will never finish it—"

"Isn't this the mathematical concept of a limit? Infinitely approaching zero, but never equaling zero."

"And modern physics tells us that space has a minimum scale: the Planck length."

"When it reaches a certain level, it cannot be divided further."

"What Zhuangzi said about 'never exhausted' is actually describing a process of infinite approach; and the modern Planck length is that limit of 'cannot be divided further'."

"The ancients more than two thousand years ago were already thinking about this problem!"

Jiang Zhe nodded approvingly. "Go on."

Seeing that her brother didn't refute her, Xiao Yu became more confident as she spoke. "So, whether it's Pi or the Sun-Earth distance, it is very likely that the people of Ancient Egypt calculated it themselves using their mathematical methods; it doesn't necessarily have to be some Atlantis heritage!"

"We cannot underestimate the wisdom of the ancients! Attributing some advanced discoveries to alien civilizations or lost civilizations is in itself a kind of arrogance!"

As Xiao Yu finished her series of remarks, it caused the audience's perception of her to change a lot again.

"What Xiao Yu said makes sense."

"Indeed, we can't just push everything onto aliens!"

"The wisdom of the ancients is not low!"

"Xiao Yu's IQ is online today."

Gusu High School, Principal's office.

Principal Fu looked at the screen and couldn't help but laugh out loud. "This little girl is doing well today!"

Old Wang also echoed with a laugh,

"What she said really makes sense. The achievements of our country's ancient mathematics were not low to begin with."

"The 'Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art' was written in the first century BC, and it contains many mathematical ideas that transcended the era."

On the other side, inside Qingfeng Temple, after hearing Xiao Yu's questioning, Zheng Ming immediately tipped one thousand yuan and left a message: [Just have to be serious, here's a reward!]

Inside the big screen, on the sofa.

After listening to Xiao Yu's words, the smile on Jiang Zhe's face became more and more obvious.

Then he gave Xiao Yu a thumbs up. "Not bad."

"Everything you said is logical, the arguments are sufficient, and you have your own thinking. Very good."

Xiao Yu held her head high with pride.

"But!"

The next moment, Jiang Zhe's tone changed, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly,

Xiao Yu's smile instantly froze on her face.

"Pi can be attributed to ancient mathematics."

"The Sun-Earth distance can be attributed to astronomical observation; these are indeed possible, they are all coincidences."

"But, can the next point that I am about to mention really be attributed to coincidence?"

Xiao Yu's pupils suddenly shrank. "Hm?"

In the live broadcast room, the heated barrage of comments also disappeared, and countless people suddenly became nervous again.