Chapter 5: Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants
“What’s impossible about this?” Lin Ran continued tapping, but this time the tapping no longer followed the Fibonacci sequence, instead slowly tapping the desk at a rate of once per second:
“Euler could manually derive the three-degree-of-freedom ballistic trajectory equation by hand, and while working at NASA you must have seen plenty of people who could manually calculate complex integrals, with precision even more accurate than the FRIDEN 130 calculator provided by Boeing Company.
Is it strange that I inferred the atmospheric drag coupling effect through Clairaut’s rotation fluid balance Earth shape mathematical model, Legendre’s spherical harmonics, and Laplace’s perturbation theory?”
Lin Ran was trying his best to ease the atmosphere at the entire scene and avoid further oppressing the other’s already extremely fragile nerves.
Is this the feeling of standing on the shoulders of giants? Lin Ran thought to himself, even without the enhanced brain, he had sufficient advantage in this era.
Elites like Haines could only be firmly grasped by him.
As for how he judged that the other was a NASA elite, standing outside the telephone booth, he heard Haines’s dialogue with his superior clearly; the super strong mental calculation ability shown by the other during the call was not something an elite would lack.
If any random small figure at NASA had this ability, the space race wouldn’t need to compete at all.
But in front of him, no matter how awesome the elite was, they couldn’t match the wisdom of later generations.
“Randolph, alright, I’ll tentatively believe you’re a Ramanujan-like figure in the field of aerospace, and I’m Sir Muktiji who discovered Ramanujan, so you’re patiently explaining to me like this, what do you want?” Haines said after taking a deep breath.
“I just arrived in New York, I need a place to stay, and also give me some US dollars, I’m penniless right now.
As for the reward, the fourth and fifth terms of the Newton gravitational perturbation correction formula are the reward, you know its value very well.
As for why I approached you, it’s a coincidence.”
“Dear Professor Schuster, hello, the first day after entering the 1960s was a not-small shock to me, because on this day I met a Ramanujan-like figure, provided that he didn’t deceive me.
He is like Ramanujan, an Asian, with extraordinary talent in mathematics, able to derive the Newton gravitational perturbation correction formula to the fifth term by hand calculation.”
Haines brought Lin Ran back to his residence in New York, though the conditions proposed by the other seemed utterly inconceivable to him.
Such a character was actually worrying about food, clothing, housing, and transportation.
He originally thought the other’s request was to help him enter NASA. Unexpectedly, it was something that could be dismissed with simple money.
But in Haines’s view, it also gave him an opportunity; if it was confirmed that the other was really a Ramanujan-like genius, even if the other didn’t want it, he would proactively offer to help Lin Ran join NASA.
And the person he was now writing furiously to send a letter to was his predecessor, the laboratory director of the Ion Propulsion Laboratory at Marshall Space Flight Center, Ernst Schuster.
His own position couldn’t get a yellow person into NASA, even if the other was a Ramanujan-like genius, but Schuster could.
After firmly memorizing Lin Ran’s formula derivation in his mind in the coffee shop’s private room, he put the derivation formula in a metal washbasin and burned it, then Haines brought Lin Ran back to his residence and hurriedly wrote a letter to Schuster describing his discoveries that day.
Back at Haines’s residence, Lin Ran was in the guest room sorting out the gains and losses of this short half day.
“In my dialogue with Haines, I didn’t expose too much, saying I came from the Mainland isn’t a big problem.
Who can verify whether I really came from the Mainland?
As for this identity, it’s definitely not enough now; after returning to 2020, I still need to find opportunities to further perfect it.
Because if I want to join NASA, this current identity definitely can’t dispel the doubts.
Especially with my knowledge accumulation and ability, after entering NASA, I would inevitably shine like a firefly in the dark night.
No matter how far McCarthyism is, I still need to make my identity airtight.
Being undocumented is no problem, but being an undocumented person with untraceable origins would be a big problem, that’s absolutely not allowed.”
With Haines’s protection, the 3 days in 1960 passed exceptionally peacefully; the area where the other lived was also considered a wealthy district, with guaranteed security.
Besides thinking about what to do next, Lin Ran was also conducting a series of tests using the limited conditions:
“For body changes, I can use testing methods for astronauts to test the changes in my body.
However, baseline testing, stress testing, motion capture—these test types either require a control group or professional equipment, which are unrealistic for me now.
There’s no high-speed camera for reaction testing, and even after returning to 2020 it would be hard to borrow one; even if I could borrow it, if someone detects the abnormality in my body, it wouldn’t be a good thing.
For now, I can only use some makeshift methods for a preliminary judgment of the body abnormalities.
Whether limb positioning, repeated movement trajectory, or muscle control, these can all be done without props.”
From an aerospace major background, Lin Ran learned many methods for testing the body in astronaut-related courses.
He originally thought he would never have the opportunity to become an astronaut in this lifetime and thus wouldn’t use these methods, but unexpectedly, he could put them to use at this point in time. By having the brain set a specific target, like below the earlobe on the front side, then checking the deviation when the finger touches that position, switching different targets to gradually increase test difficulty, thereby judging the precision of limb control.
Or performing specified movements, like drawing a square with the left hand and a circle with the right is also a method.
“As I predicted, my control over my body has reached a whole new level; considering only humans, my degree of body control should be the best among humans.”
When the brain issued the command to move the finger down 2 centimeters, though there was no ruler for measurement, Lin Ran could visually judge that it was exactly 2 centimeters.
After reconfirming the complete mastery of high-precision body control through stability in different postures, Lin Ran had a preliminary understanding of the changes that occurred to himself:
“The door allows me to move between different locations and spacetime; combined with the body changes, I have a certain self-preservation ability.
And the degree of brain evolution is even more exaggerated to an astonishing extent; currently, it seems the improvements are not only in computing power and memory, but also a significant increase in deep thinking ability.
In the remaining time, Lin Ran held back from causing trouble, and in dialogues with Haines, besides continuing to show his genius, he didn’t expose more abnormalities.
For the other’s questions about his identity, Lin Ran just brushed them off.
Without more information, Lin Ran adhered to the principle that for issues outside of science, saying wrong things leads to more mistakes and may require more effort to cover up in the future; in short, he played dumb to three questions.
While Lin Ran was keeping a low profile, he received a special delivery letter from NASA: “Bring him to Houston, arrange for him to have an interview.”
