China's achievements and contributions.

In the autumn of the ninth year of Xianfeng (1859), Hua wrote his first mathematical work, Parabola Theory. Xu Shou drew a picture for it. In the eleventh year of Xianfeng, Hua and Xu Shou were recommended to the shogunate by Zeng Guofan. In March of the first year of Tongzhi (1862), Xu Shou and I went to Anqing Inner Ordnance Institute founded by Zeng Guofan to develop motor boats. After careful calculation and design, they built the first steam engine in China within three months. Then in the fourth year of Tongzhi, the first motor boat in China was designed and built, named "Huanggu". In the same year, he went to Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau to participate in the preparatory work.

In the sixth year of Tongzhi, Yin Jian, the second son of Xu Shou, was sent by Zeng Guofan and also came to Shanghai to help Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau. Hua assisted Xu Shou in his technical work, and translated and published Mineralogy and Identification of Stones in cooperation with American friend Ma. He also helped Xu Shou set up a translation hall in the manufacturing bureau. In the eleventh year of Tongzhi, he wrote a book, Prescription and Other Techniques, which was praised as a masterpiece by the famous mathematician Li at that time. Since then, He, Marco Polo, Bolanya and others have translated some books, such as A Brief Interpretation of Geosciences, A New Theory of Preventing the Sea, and Windproof Techniques, which were published in the 12th year of Tongzhi. At that time, He, Xu Shou and Xu were appointed as general managers of Jiangnan Machinery Manufacturing Company. In the 13th year of Tongzhi, he and John Flair, an Englishman, successively translated The Source of Algebra and Differential Product, which was published by Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau. In the second year of Guangxu (1876), Hua helped Xu Shou to establish Shanghai Gezhi Academy, and he taught mathematics. In cooperation with John Flair, he has translated trigonometry, algebra puzzles, suspicious mathematics and so on. He also edited and published Formulated Ancient Meaning, Algorithm Description, Solving Several Roots, Comparative Calculation, Talking about Learning Calculation and other works. In the 13th year of Guangxu, Hua gave lectures in Tianjin Military Science. During this period, he wrote "Measurement Methods" and cooperated with John Flair to translate "Combination of Numbers" and other books. In the eighteenth year of Guangxu, he gave lectures on Hubei Wuchang Lianghu Academy and Hadron School, and wrote books such as Seeking Multiplier Method, Several Roots in Ancient Times, Examination of Cyclic Decimals, and Arithmetic Essays. Around 1857, Hua and Xu Shou studied (B. Hobson,1816-1873) New Edition of Natural History in Shanghai, and got a preliminary understanding of steam engines. 1862, He, Xu Shou, Wu, Gong Yuntang, Xu and others trial-produced ships in Anqing Inner Ordnance Institute. They take the pictures and texts in New Natural History as the main reference materials. Hua is responsible for "deducing dynamics and measuring turbines", while Xu Shou is responsible for "building and fixing machines" and making samples. At the beginning, they also went to foreign ships to observe. "The outline is already in their hearts." After three months of hard work, a small steam engine with a cylinder diameter of 1.7 inch (43 mm) and 240 revolutions per minute was finally manufactured, which was "very successful". So, set out to design and manufacture ships. 1863 built a propeller-propelled ship, but "the speed is slow and the effect is not very good". 1865 In March, Nanjing finally built a wooden steamer with open wheels. After Zeng Guofan's "inspection", he named it "Huanggu". The captain is 55 feet long, weighs 25 tons, and the speed is over 20 miles per hour. The steam engine is a single cylinder with a cylinder diameter of 65,438+0 feet and a cylinder length of 2 feet. Steel for rotating shaft, boiler and chimney are all imported.

China is not superstitious about imported technical products. Longhua Fire Factory of Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau needs to import a large amount of silver "water" (nitric acid) to prepare gunpowder every year. Hua is determined to be his own "boiled water". After many tests, it finally made a qualified product at the cost of only 65438+ 0/3 of the import price. When I was in Tianjin Military Equipment School, German personnel in China bought a new type of bomb testing instrument, but I didn't know how to use it. Hua used his mathematical knowledge to analyze its principle and help people master its usage. Tianjin Ordnance School is going to imitate a marching observation balloon used in the Sino-French War for students to try out. German teachers don't believe that China people can perform and imitate. Hua was very angry at foreigners' ridicule and personally presided over the trial production. Finally, in 1887, a hydrogen balloon with a diameter of 5 feet was copied and tested successfully. In the 13th year of Guangxu (1887), he taught in Tianjin armament school, and in the 18th year of Guangxu (1892), he gave lectures in Wuchang, Hubei. His students, Yang and his younger brother Hua Shifang (word ruoxi, 1854 ~ 1905) all became mathematicians under his influence. In the twenty-second year of Guangxu, he successively served as the dean of Changzhou Longcheng Academy and Jiangyin Nanqing Academy. In his later years, he gave lectures in a real school in his hometown. When he teaches in simple terms, he inspires and induces students and encourages them to think independently. At that time, China needed a lot of nitrate and water as raw materials to make gunpowder, which could not be produced at home and had to be imported. European and American countries, on the other hand, are taking advantage of people's danger to drive up prices. After learning about this, Hua was very angry and said that he would "make homemade iron pot water to stop the leak." After repeated research and experiments, he finally succeeded in developing it in Longhua Thermal Power Pharmaceutical Factory, and the cost required was only one third of that of imports, which saved a lot of money for the country and broke the monopoly of foreign powers.

When he was teaching in Tianjin Military Equipment School, the school introduced a "bomb testing instrument" from Germany for teaching needs, but no one knew its performance and use. Hua explained the reason and usage of this machine with his rich knowledge in the field of mathematics. People sincerely admire him and are proud to have such a scholar in China.

Hua devoted his life to natural science and made outstanding contributions to the development of mathematics in China. Finally, some of the original works are combined into a book "Su Xing Xuan Shu Draft". Guangxu died in the 28th year at the age of 69. As an outstanding mathematician and patriotic scientist in modern China, his name and achievements will remain in history forever. In A.D. 1880 (the sixth year of Guangxu), Chinese and English missionary john fryer came to China. 1839- 1928) co-translated the book "Suspicious Mathematics" and introduced western probability theory works to China for the first time. This book was originally written by British T Galloway and R E Anderson.

The Chinese translation of the word "probability" is "doubt", and later it is translated into "probability", "possibility" and "contingency". 1964. Mathematical Terminology (supplement) uses "probability" uniformly.

Hua devoted himself to compiling this book because he realized the position and role of probability theory in studying social phenomena at that time and longed for Chinese people to master this knowledge as soon as possible. In the preface of the book, he mentioned: "Probability theory has a wide range of applications, which can be used to govern the people by the state, or by the people, or to promote the customs and change the articles of association"; It can "replace divination", estimate population, guide life insurance, predict the accuracy of judging cases and count some averages in postal and medical services.

The content system of the suspect number is complete. In the "Introduction", besides emphasizing the application of probability theory, it also briefly introduces the development history of probability theory and the work of more than 30 accomplished mathematicians. The first five volumes are classical probability, which lists many interesting historical topics, such as points, needles, gambling books, Petersburg gambling method and so on. The sixth and seventh volumes talk about the application of probability theory in life insurance, the calculation of case judgment accuracy and so on. The last three volumes include the law of large numbers, normal distribution and least square method: J. Sterling formula. Some calculation problems need to use double integral and infinite integral. As far as its depth is concerned, it is roughly equivalent to the content of modern engineering university students' study.

"The Mathematics of Doubt" was not published in time after translation, because the dry translator found the book novel and difficult to understand, which was difficult for readers to accept. It was not until 1896 (the 22nd year of Guangxu) that it was first printed and published. The next year, another printed version appeared. 1909 (Xuantongyuannian) was compiled and published by mathematician Zhou Da (American influence), which made this book spread and became the only reading material for studying and studying probability theory at that time, and played a positive role in the spread of probability theory in China.

Today, probability theory has been widely used in China and has achieved fruitful results in solving the problems of national economic and social development. Naturally, we will never forget the pioneering work of Hua, the driving force for introducing probability theory into China more than 100 years ago. Hua attaches importance to mathematics education, and once said, "My fruit is like a spring silkworm, and I am willing to die", pinning my hopes for developing mathematics on my later study. In Critique of Mathematics, he expounded his mathematics teaching thoughts, such as "readers should not be enslaved by books", which showed that his methodology had dialectical content; Hua's philosophy is scattered in his works, both idealistic and materialistic, and has not yet formed an ideological system.

Such a thing happened in the armament school. A German instructor brought a marching observation balloon (broken) used by France in the Sino-French War to explain. He said that this balloon has been in Germany for one hundred years, but you have never seen it in China, so you can't use it, let alone make it. Hua was very angry when he learned about it. He is determined to build one for the Germans to see. He immediately set out to design and personally supervise the trial production, fighting day and night in the factory. Finally, a hydrogen balloon with a diameter of 5 feet was made at 1887. When the "Ran Ran" balloon developed by China was launched, people cheered and cheered. China is proud of our country.