He walked to and fro in his laboratory. His features worked with excitement. We worked ours, too, as sympathetically as we could.
“There is no other possible method in inductive science,” he added, “than to embrace some hypothesis, the most attractive that one can find, and remain with it———”
We nodded. Even in our own humble life after our day’s work we had found this true.
“Now,” said the Professor, planting himself squarely in front of us, “assuming a spherical form, and a spacial content, assuming the dynamic forces that are familiar to us and assuming—the thing is bold, I admit———”
We looked as bold as we could.
“Assuming that the ions, or nuclei of the atom—I know no better word———”
“Neither do we,” we said.
“That the nuclei move under the energy of such forces, what have we got?”
“Ha!” we said.
“What have we got? Why, the simplest matter conceivable. The forces inside our atom—itself, mind you, the function of a circle—mark that———”
We did.
“Becomes merely a function of π!”
The Great Scientist paused with a laugh of triumph.
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