Chapter 246: Imaginary Number

Washington Times was not a mainstream media outlet, but it was already blowing up on the Internet.

What else was more eye-catching than “racial discrimination”?

The discussion was everywhere on Facebook and Twitter.

Chinese students and Chinese groups naturally stood on Lu Zhou’s side whereas the black and white-left groups were filled with indignation.

However, Lu Zhou was unperturbed by it.

He did not use Facebook or Twitter, and he was busy with his own stuff. He did not have time to worry about the comments on the Internet.

However, as he said, since the opposite side gave him an invitation, he had to respond.

Soon, it was report day.

There was still a few hours before the report would begin. When Lu Zhou arrived at Palmer square, he planned to get a bite to eat.

It was too late to go to the Ivy Club as it was halfway across the Princeton campus.

Lu Zhou found a Texas burger store near Palmer Square. He was about to go in when he heard an argument going on.

He saw a black dude standing in front of the counter while speaking in a condescending tone, “This chicken burger combo is $6, the Texas beef burger combo is $7. The burger is only $3.5 and $4 dollars respectively. Also, I saw that coke is $1.”

“The combo includes a barbecue kebab and coke. I got two prices for the kebab through simultaneous equations. Your Texas kebab is both $1.5 and $2. Do you have a reason for this imaginary solution?”

The white guy stood behind the counter and scratched his ear as he said impatiently, “So what?”

“This is unacceptable,” said Professor Enoch confidently. He added, “In Nigeria, a high school student could solve this equation. You’re selling burgers at Princeton, how do you not know this?”

The redneck behind the counter was obviously annoyed when he said, “I don’t care about your numbers. Are you buying or not? If not, move aside.”

Although the redneck wanted to tell the black guy to f*ck off, he restrained his anger.

Enoch looked at this rude redneck and could not help but feel superior.

He felt the same type of superiority when he was teaching at the University of Ekiti.

A group of dumb black guys sat in his classroom, and he was the omnipotence god. He enjoyed gloating in front of those weaker than him.

This type of feeling was like a drug.

However, Professor Enoch did not realize that the situation here in America was different than Nigeria.

The redneck standing in front of him was not interested in learning, and Enoch was far from home.

The redneck rolled up his sleeves and looked at the waiter. Suddenly a clear voice came from the entrance of the burger store.

“The equations aren’t very difficult at all, any Chinese high school will teach them… I’ll have a bacon sandwich and a coffee. I have a report later, please hurry up,” said Lu Zhou as he skipped the line and placed the money on the counter.

When the redneck saw the cash, he smiled.

“You got it.”

Professor Enoch heard the report being mentioned and was interested. He seemed to have guessed this Chinese guy’s identity.

He immediately asked, “Then how do you explain the prices on the menu?”

“It’s easy, you just have to put it in an equation. In this case, we usually consider adding a coefficient in front of the unknown. You can treat it as the so-called preferential margin,” said Lu Zhou. He shrugged and said, “Of course, you can’t just add two brackets to the equations at the same time, and use one of them to calculate the imaginary solution. I’m curious how you did it, did your students not teach you?”

A few students eating in the restaurant chuckled.

They had been watching the show since the beginning. They wanted to watch this Chinese teach this Nigerian a lesson.

In mathematics, imaginary numbers were numbers that were in the form of a+bi. a and b were real numbers, and b was not 0. i^2 is -1, and a was the real part, b was the imaginary part. Most, if not all, Chinese students knew about imaginary numbers.

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Basically, the imaginary part was the square root of a negative number. Once you added a real number to it, it became a complex number.

This was not something that was difficult or esoteric. As long as one had a high school education, one could learn it easily.

“He’s right… It’s none of your business what I sell,” said the redneck impatiently as he waved his hand. He tapped the table and said, “If you’re not buying anything, you can leave. The people behind you are waiting.”

The atmosphere was full of joy.

Enoch blushed and said, “How do you know there are no imaginary numbers in linear equations? Do you know that in Albanian group, homomorphism, and conjugate classes, there’s no such thing as an imaginary number…”

Lu Zhou was speechless.

He wanted to ask if Enoch even know what those terms meant, but that was not the main point.

The main point was…

“No sh*t, you don’t even need to square root anything for a linear equation!”

…

For Lu Zhou, what happened in the burger shop was only a small incident.

He was curious where that black guy learned mathematics from. In the end, the black guy blushed and was laughed out of the restaurant.

Lu Zhou put this matter aside and finished his food. He then calmly strolled back to the hotel opposite Palmer Square.

Larter stood at the front door and welcomed all of the guests. When he saw Lu Zhou, he was stunned. However, he quickly put on a smile.

That smile was malevolent.

“Welcome, the Chinese mathematician from Princeton. I didn’t expect to see you here.”

Lu Zhou looked at the nearly full lecture hall and laughed as he said, “I don’t think I count as crashing the party, right?”

“You’re laughing?” Larter smirked. He then lowered his voice, “Hope you can still laugh in an hour.”

Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Can I ask a question?”

Larter, “What question?”

Lu Zhou asked seriously, “Who gave you this sh*tty idea?”

Larter paused. He did not change his fake smile as he said, “What idea? Sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Lu Zhou smiled and said softly, “Nothing, it’s fine. Pretend like I didn’t ask.”

Lu Zhou obviously did not expect anything to come from that one question.

The human subconscious was uncontrollable, especially when external factors are present.

Larter did not waste his time with Lu Zhou. Instead, he turned around and started to greet the legal representatives of the black rights protection organizations.

Most people sitting in the venue did not understand mathematics. Just like how the original “New Yorker” article misrepresented Qiu Chengtong’s achievements, the media did not care about the truth.

This was a place where populism was rampant.

The reason why they sat here today was that a Nigerian brother was treated unfairly by the American academic community. They only came here for political correctness.

However…

What did this have to do with Lu Zhou?

Academic exchanges could not be done with people that knew nothing about mathematics. Having Professor Enoch talking on stage was like playing piano for cows.

However, some things could still be conveyed through language.

Lu Zhou gently adjusted his tie.

For him, this was nothing difficult.