"How long have you been listening?" Teacher Mu asked.
"I only listened to two questions, they were a bit low-level," Shen Qi replied.
Teacher Mu smiled and wasn't angry, "Is that so?"
Shen Qi said, "Take this submarine problem written on the blackboard, for example. Because the inlet and outlet areas are the same, the flow velocity remains constant. The effect of the Ampere's Force is to increase the pressure. Considering the conservation of energy, calculating v1 and v2 doesn't require much calculation. It's too simple. The CMO is way harder than the CPhO. Teacher Mu, I don't mean anything by it, and I'm not being arrogant. I just feel particularly sad when I see those really easy problems."
(CPhO: National Physics Olympiad for Secondary School Students)
"Those two questions you just saw were indeed a bit too easy," Teacher Mu continued with a smile.
Shen Qi was speechless. "This... you wrote it out for them to do because it's so low-level? Our school's Physics Competition Team isn't that bad, is it?"
"Shen Qi, let me tell you, this is about the level of the CPhO preliminary round. The first question was a real CPhO preliminary round question, and the second question is almost good enough to be included in the CPhO preliminary round question bank."
"The CPhO preliminary round is open to all, right?" Last year, Shen Qi participated in the provincial mathematics league competition, which was equivalent to the national preliminary round of CPhO. At that time, his mathematics level was 3, and he still had to work incredibly hard to win the provincial championship.
Shen Qi's physics level is also level 3. The questions in the CPhO National Preliminary Competition are child's play for him. He can calculate the answers in his head without breaking a sweat.
"The sense of superiority that mathematics gives you is truly unparalleled. On behalf of the Physics Competition Team, I extend a friendly invitation to you to come in and have a friendly exchange?" Teacher Mu snapped his fingers twice in quick succession, "Clap clap."
"Okay." Shen Qi snapped his fingers with his right hand, snap, then snapped his fingers with his left hand, but no snap.
"You're not left-handed, you need to practice more." Teacher Mu snapped her fingers repeatedly with her left hand, like setting off firecrackers, and then gestured for Shen Qi to follow her into the laboratory.
"The physics teacher really has a lot of amazing skills." Shen Qi followed Teacher Mu into the room.
As soon as the two entered, a dozen or so members of the Physics Competition Team looked on with suspicion. They all recognized Shen Qi; had this math genius come to cause trouble for their Physics Competition Team?
"I have something to say," Teacher Mu said to the whole team, then glanced at Shen Qi: "This is Shen Qi, everyone please welcome him."
Clap clap clap!
Applause erupted.
"Hey, Shen Qi's here to cause trouble, why should we applaud to welcome him?"
"Could it be a friendly match?"
The team members were discussing it animatedly.
"Would you like to introduce yourself, Shen Qi?" Teacher Mu asked Shen Qi, who was sitting next to her.
Shen Qi asked the dozen or so Physics Competition Team below the stage, "Do you need it?"
No, no, no.
"I understand, I understand."
The team members all shook their heads and waved their hands.
Shen Qi said, "Hello everyone, then I won't say any more. Everything is understood without words."
Teacher Mu said to Shen Qi, "Go down and find a seat."
Shen Qi walked to the seat next to Lin Xingyu and sat down.
"Boss, what's going on?" Lin Xingyu asked impatiently.
Shen Qi laughed and said, "Mutual visits and friendly exchanges. Lin Xingyu, keep quiet, Teacher Mu is about to unleash a powerful move."
Lin Xingyu looked at the blackboard suspiciously, not understanding what had happened.
Teacher Mu tapped the blackboard. "Which student has found the answer to this submarine problem?"
Brush!
Swish!
The team members in the audience all raised their hands.
"It seems the CPhO preliminary round questions posed no obstacle for you. Perhaps my teaching was too conservative." Teacher Mu looked at the arms raised in unison and said, "Bai Lingye, come up to the stage and give your answer."
A boy went up to the stage and wrote his solution process on the blackboard.
Teacher Mu walked to the multimedia control panel on one side of the blackboard, turned on the power, and started operating the multimedia teaching system.
While waiting, Shen Qi asked Lin Xingyu, "How long has Teacher Mu been with the Physics Competition Team?"
Lin Xingyu: "She just arrived recently, before the Spring Festival. She taught us one training session before the Spring Festival, and then she went on holiday."
"I remember that Teacher Yue used to coach the Physics Competition Team?" Shen Qi asked.
"Teacher Yue suffered a sudden cerebral hemorrhage and has been hospitalized." Lin Xingyu's expression turned frightened.
Teacher Yue is nearly sixty and about to retire; she's a senior teacher at Nangang Second High School. Shen Qi also found it alarming. "This... you bunch of good-for-nothings made Teacher Yue suffer a stroke. So before the handover was fully completed, Teacher Mu was hastily put in charge. Is she giving you such simple questions to test your abilities?"
"Perhaps, but Teacher Mu is incredibly knowledgeable and amazing," Lin Xingyu said admiringly.
"She's only taught you one and a half training sessions, and she already knows a lot? She's already incredibly skilled?" Shen Qi retorted.
"She's a female PhD in physics!" Lin Xingyu's eyes lit up.
"Oh really? That's impressive. What area of study is your PhD in?" Shen Qi glanced at Teacher Mu, who was operating the multimedia system. She's a PhD in physics?
"Astrophysics, the study of the universe." Lin Xingyu admired Teacher Mu immensely.
"Impressive, impressive, Master Mu." Shen Qi's understanding of Teacher Mu deepened further. A female PhD in astrophysics, now living among commoners, was setting up seemingly simple problems—what unknown secrets lay behind this?
At this moment, the boy on the stage finished answering the question, and Teacher Mu said, "Good, all correct. Bai Lingye, you can go back to your seat now."
Shen Qi's initial observation was that the overall strength of this school Physics Competition Team was passable; at least Lin Xingyu and Bai Lingye had the ability to advance to the national semi-finals. The CPhO competition format is preliminary round, semi-final, and national final, similar to the CMO. After several rounds of testing, the best players are finally selected to enter the national team and participate in the IPhO.
"Please look carefully at the big screen." Under Teacher Mu's guidance, a screen slowly descended in front of the laboratory, projecting an animated demonstration.
In the center of the image is a small red ball with a black letter H marked on it.
Clearly, this small ball represents a hydrogen atom.
Each hydrogen atom has a strangely shaped emitter at one end, which continuously shoots out blue rays, attacking the red hydrogen atom.
Click click.
The multimedia speaker emits a sound effect of an object solidifying and cooling.
The red spheres representing hydrogen atoms gradually change color, becoming lighter and lighter until they turn pale blue.
That concludes the demonstration animation.
All the students in the audience, including Shen Qi, watched with great interest.
Only a very small number of top researchers in the world have the opportunity to personally participate in microscopic experiments at the atomic level; most people rely on teaching materials or science fiction films to fill in the gaps in their knowledge.
"What I'm demonstrating to you is laser cooling of atoms. Do you understand?" Teacher Mu asked.
"Let's demonstrate it again, Teacher Mu," the students in the audience suggested.
"Okay, let's do it again." Teacher Mu replayed the laser cooling demonstration animation of atoms.
During the demonstration, Teacher Mu explained, "Laser cooling is a technology that utilizes the interaction between lasers and atoms to slow down atomic motion and obtain ultra-low temperature atoms. A few countries in the world have mastered this technology, with the United States in a leading position, and China is catching up. Chinese scientist Steven Chu won the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for his theoretical research on this technology, and he was appointed as a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences."
"So my question is, in the atomic reference frame shown on the screen, due to the recoil effect, there exists a minimum temperature. Please calculate this minimum value." After finishing the second animation demonstration, Teacher Mu displayed a new image, which was a schematic diagram of a planar atomic reference frame.
"This..." The students below the stage were dumbfounded. What was just now was clearly at the level of a preliminary round of a physics competition, but now it has been directly raised to the level of the Nobel Prize in Physics. Teacher Mu is extremely conservative when he is conservative, but when he is radical, it is like going to the sky.