My Study Chat Group is Full of Real Big Shots

Chapter 65: Chapter 62: New Direction for the Qiu Prize

Jiangcheng Sixth Middle School, Honors Class.

For the past couple of days, the learning atmosphere in the Honors Class has been... well, how should I put it?

It used to be a battle of gods in this class.

Whenever a teacher from any subject threw out a problem that was beyond the curriculum, this group of top students, all decorated with awards from various competitions, would produce an answer in no time.

It was as if these problems weren’t even worthy of staying on the Honors Class blackboard.

But now?

”Permission to enter.”

A figure appeared at the classroom’s back door, and Li Dong walked in, his expression calm as ever.

With his arrival, the students of the Honors Class couldn’t help but feel a sudden gloom, as if dark clouds were gathering overhead, even though the bright classroom lights were on.

The results of the Huaxuan Cup finals had already reached the school.

Li Dong, first place.

The prestige of this first-place win was simply staggering.

Rumor had it that the final question this year was a genuine, engineering-grade problem from within Huaxuan Technology, desensitized for the competition.

And Li Dong, for the second time, had utterly crushed Qiao Fan, that much-hyped genius freshman from Rongcheng Seventh Middle School.

He had also won a special prize of one million from Huaxuan Technology!

The sense of pressure he gave off was completely maxed out!

It got to the point where, whenever Li Dong was in the room, the class of top students would fall collectively silent when faced with a difficult problem, be it in math or physics.

It wasn’t that they couldn’t solve the problems, but their gazes would inevitably drift toward the corner in the back row.

They suddenly felt that presenting the derivations they were so proud of in front of Li Dong... would feel like showing off in front of a true master.

The fear of being dominated by this academic god had practically turned this class of top students into social introverts.

...

That evening, Li Dong specifically requested to be excused from the evening self-study session.

The one million from Huaxuan Technology was sitting in his bank account. He didn’t dare tell his mom over the phone, afraid she wouldn’t be able to handle the shock.

But when Li Dong pushed open the door to his home, the apartment was pitch-black.

”Mom?”

No response.

Li Dong sighed. He didn’t have to guess. His mom was definitely working overtime at the supermarket again, wrestling with that stupid inventory system.

’Why do my attempts to show off for Mom always fail?’

Resigned, Li Dong could only go to the kitchen and make himself a simple bowl of plain noodles.

As he ate his noodles, he opened the ”Cyan Dragon Study Group.”

’I wonder if Mendel understood the microgenetics paper I sent last time...’

Ever since Ronald Fisher posted ”Please give him some time” in the group that day, Mendel hadn’t said a word.

Li Dong had been glued to the group chat for days, hoping this true god of biology would drop some rewards for him.

But the chat had only been spammed by [Isaac Newton].

This god of Classical Mechanics was having an absolute blast in Universe 1666, a world where he had single-handedly ignited the flames of industry ahead of schedule.

[Isaac Newton]: Gentlemen, I have finally and completely solved the ”chronic issue of the steam engine governor” that the factory owners are always wailing about.

This ”chronic issue” was that under a high load, the engine’s speed was prone to violent oscillations, leading to runaway failures and even catastrophic explosions. The craftsmen of the day only knew how to add grease to the axle, never getting to the root of the problem.

Li Dong casually typed a reply, playing along.

[Senior Grinding Problems]: Impressive, Sir Newton. You’ve solved a core problem for industrial power.

[Isaac Newton]: Hmph. It was a simple matter of using my principles of mechanics to calculate the equilibrium state of two small, rotating spheres.

[Isaac Newton]: However, while working on the theory for this device, I discovered a most interesting anomaly.

[Senior Grinding Problems]: Oh? What kind of anomaly?

[Isaac Newton]: It’s the governor. Two iron spheres hang symmetrically on a rotating shaft. According to my equations, once the rotational speed hits a critical value, the spheres should lift smoothly. When the speed decreases, they should lower smoothly.

[Isaac Newton]: But I’ve measured hundreds of data sets in the factory, and that’s not what happens at all! When the speed increases, it clearly reaches the theoretical critical value to lift, but it stubbornly stays put! It has to spin a fair bit faster before it suddenly JUMPS up with a ’click’!

[Isaac Newton]: The reverse is even stranger. When the speed decreases, it clearly drops below the theoretical critical value, but the spheres just hang there! They won’t fall until the speed drops even further, and then they suddenly drop back down.

[Isaac Newton]: Those engineers assume the spheres are imbalanced or the shaft is unevenly worn.

[Isaac Newton]: So I personally crafted a perfectly symmetrical device. The weight difference between the two spheres is less than a thousandth of a grain, yet the phenomenon persists!

[Isaac Newton]: But I have no time to study such a trifle. It is merely a fringe corollary of my mechanical system.

Reading this, Li Dong froze.

His Physical Perception and 0.2 Logical Attribute allowed him to see the complete physical picture of the rotating spheres.

’A perfectly symmetrical device... it should move at the critical point but doesn’t, only making a sudden jump after overshooting the threshold?’

’The critical values for speeding up and slowing down don’t coincide... there’s a hysteresis gap...’

Newton might look down on studying this sort of thing, but Li Dong was different. He had a foolish nephew to think about!

’This jump in the equilibrium state within a macroscopic mechanical system... it seems to be mathematically isomorphic to a first-order thermodynamic phase transition.’

’If I use Lagrangian mechanics to build an effective potential energy model and turn this dual-sphere governor into an experimental apparatus, I could perfectly replicate all the core features of a first-order phase transition!’

Li Dong’s train of thought kept rolling.

’What if I replaced the symmetrical dual-sphere system with a single-sphere rotating pendulum?’

Li Dong had completely lost his appetite.

Elder Chen had been sighing nonstop for days, wondering what he could submit for the Qiu Prize.

’And here it is!’

Just then.

His phone suddenly vibrated.

Li Dong glanced down.

[Mendel has sent you an exclusive Red Packet]

He froze for a second, then was overcome with ecstatic joy.

”Holy shit! It’s finally here!”

[Passive Skill: Life Analysis (Basic Edition)]

[Description: A gift from the father of genetics, who has performed a complete analysis based on your prior hypothesis on the microgenetics of mitochondrial-nuclear interaction.]

[Effect: You can now see the underlying code of life. Phenotypic traits will no longer appear as isolated characteristics in your eyes.]

[Gregor John Mendel]: @Senior Grinding Problems, thank you for your theory. I now have a new direction for my research.

Mendel was still a man of few words.

Li Dong was about to type a polite reply when another ID suddenly shattered the group’s harmonious atmosphere.

[Ronald Fisher]: Mr. Mendel, while the theory from Senior Grinding Problems does indeed complement the boundaries of your genetic framework, I still stand by my original views.

Ronald Fisher, the dual founder of modern statistics and population genetics. His scientific status was beyond question, but as a person... well, opinions on him were severely divided. He actually held Mendel in high regard, but that didn’t stop him from questioning Mendel’s data.

[Ronald Fisher]: I have used a chi-squared analysis on your manuscript. Those 3:1 segregation ratios for the seven traits are simply too perfect—so perfect that the probability of achieving such a result in a random experiment is less than one in ten thousand.

[Ronald Fisher]: Forgive my bluntness, but this data looks as if it were artificially selected and modified to fit a preconceived conclusion. It’s a beautiful numerical fit, but it does not conform to the principles of random error in biological experimentation.