Professor Harding’s Eureka

He put down his Monte Blanc writing pen on the green baize covered antique writing bureau, and sighed deeply with exhaustion. He leaned back in his wooden chair that creaked and groaned in protest, under his weight. He was so very tired. His work was hard, but very important. Not just to him but to the world of physics and ultimately the progression of man’s total understanding of the universe.

Professor Harding had been many things in his past, a troubled yet extremely intelligent young man, who graduated from Oxford University with the highest distinctions. “The New Scientist” magazine had hailed him as the new “Einstein” and it had been said that even the likes of Stephen Hawkins would have trouble fathoming some of the revolutionary concepts in Quantum physics that he had pioneered. He had worked at NASA as a theorist for conceptual terra-forming projects, had been the lead consultant on the Hubble telescope upgrade projects, had worked for the US and UK military in top secret biological and nuclear experiments. He had lectured at Cambridge University on quantum physics and astrophysics. But now he resigned his life to the one unsolved mystery in science today – quantifying gravity within a black hole. He had devoted the last five years of his life in this pursuit, day after day, locking himself away in his small study. He had become a recluse and was driven by a deep need to solve this scientific riddle.

His main obstacle was the figure he obtained when he ran his calculations following his, and others, equations. If he used Einstein’s theory of relativity as his model and ran his calculations he resulted in a figure that was infinite. If he used quantum physics as his base model and ran his calculations he resulted in the same infinite number. This he simply could not accept. A black hole was the result of a large star that had collapsed in upon itself when it died, thus creating a super dense core that had immense gravitational forces attributed to it. The deeper into the black hole you fell the greater the gravitational influences became so that not even light particles could escape. What he wanted to know was what happened to gravity at the very core of the black hole and how this could be quantified with numbers using a proven and accepted model. The problem he had was accepting the infinite number as there must be a point that the gravitational forces reached their maximum, thus would provide a whole number rather than a reoccurring infinite number. After-all, the star had a beginning, so by reason and logic must have an end also. He had run his equations a million times and his calculations a million times more than that. Every time he got the same infinite number. He would try back calculating his equations in the chance that he had missed something, but alas would always end up with that infinite number.

He arose from his chair and walked the few steps to his slightly ajar window. He closed his eyes and ran his fingers through his mop of white hair that resembled that of a mad scientist from an old Frankenstein movie. He felt the cool, gentle breeze upon his face; he heard the bird’s song on the air, the distant drone of an aeroplane in the deep blue sky, the traffic passing in the streets and a host of other noises that the everyday world was so good at making. He felt the warm sun on his cheeks and that made him feel good. He always felt good with the feeling of the suns warmth upon his skin.

Then came his eureka moment.

Could it be that simple? Had he been overlooking the most basic fact for as long as he had been working on solving this problem?

He rushed back to his desk and tried his new theory out. First with Einstein’s model, then the quantum physics model. Both times he was shocked to find a whole number was the result, the same whole number for both models. He ran the calculations again and again and again, Forwards and backwards and every time the same whole number was the result. He had done it. Five long years of devotion and hard work, that had almost sent him insane, had finally come to fruition. He had solved the riddle.

When stood at the window, eyes closed, was there nothing? Yet there was something, all the feelings, sensations and sounds that he felt and heard. With this in mind he asked himself where in the universe did absolute nothing exist? No-where was the answer. Even in the deepest darkest vacuums of space there was always something. Tachyon particles, gamma rays, space dust, electro-magnetic anomalies and even black holes. On this basis why was he accepting to use a number base system for his calculations that included the number zero? When he returned to his equations and calculations without the inclusion of Zero he had finally solved the problem. The figure he had in front of him was the answer to quantifying gravity within the heart of a black hole.

Professor Harding leaned back in his chair and let out a long and loud laugh. It was so simple in the end. He just needed to change that slight aspect of his conventional academic trained mind and accept the possibility of an alternative. He laughed harder and louder.

Outside the patient’s cell, in the secure unit for the clinically insane, the orderly opened the viewing hatch to check on the patient within. The patient that was laughing to himself.