"Hey, Shen Qi, stop looking down at your phone! Don't you have any basic table manners?" Sun Erxiong glared at Shen Qi. After his speech, he found Shen Qi and was treating him to steamed buns at a shop outside the school.
"Professor Sun, you're really amazing! You taught God Yun and God Wei, right?" Shen Qi put away his phone and asked.
"At the time, I was responsible for teaching several undergraduate foundation courses to that year's Mathematics Department students. There were many teachers who taught them; I was just one of them," Sun Erxiong said.
Shen Qi: "Could you arrange for me to meet with God Yun and God Wei alone? It's rare for them to National First Prize, and I just happened to run into them."
"You'll have plenty of opportunities to see Yun Wei and Gong Changwei in the future, no rush," Sun Erxiong said. Then he asked, "Last year during the Golden Autumn Camp training, I suggested you study physics and computer Computer Science to broaden your knowledge. But instead, you came to participate in CPhO? Shen Qi, are you trying to betray the Mathematics Department?"
"Hey!" Shen Qi slapped his thigh, suddenly realizing, "That's right, I'm here to participate in the physics competition! Professor Sun, I almost forgot about it if you hadn't mentioned it."
"I see." Seeing that Shen Qi didn't seem to be faking it, Sun Erxiong added, "Actually, playing in the physical competition is fine. You should hurry up and prepare for the competition. Since you're already here, you should at least win a big prize."
Shen Qi returned to his dormitory at Peking University. It was a four-person room, and he had three roommates.
Although this Nanyue Province Physics Competition Team participated under the province's name, in reality, each high school operated independently. The situation was similar in other provinces.
Looking at the rosters of the national physics National Training Team over the past decade, more than half of the national team members come from a few provinces strong in physics, or from a dozen or so high schools in those provinces. This trend is becoming increasingly apparent, and the National High School Physics Competition is also known as the "National Famous High School Competition."
Similar to math competitions, members of the National Training Team naturally have bright futures; they are highly sought after by prestigious universities.
The 12 national finalists of the Nanyue Province Physics Competition Team come from five high schools in the province, including 4 from Affiliated High School of South China Normal University, 3 from Special Zone High School, 2 from Guangdong Experimental High School, 2 from Shimen High School, and 1 from Nangang Second High School.
Four people share a room, so it was only natural that the four team members from Huafu High School would share the same dormitory room.
In Nanyue Province, the Special Zone High School that can rival the top high schools in the country in terms of academic competitions. This school is famous in the province and even the whole country for its academic competitions and unique school spirit.
The Special Zone High School is definitely more famous than the Special District University. Although only three students made it to the CPhO National Final, they are pursuing an elite path. All three are second-year high school students. Last year, when they were first-year high school students, the three of them participated in the CPhO National Final and won national awards.
The three students from the Special Zone High School naturally shared a room, with an extra bed reserved for Shen Qi.
Having not experienced the provincial training program, Shen Qi was not very familiar with his three roommates from the Special Zone High School.
Shen Qi's three roommates knew his true identity: a gold medalist with a perfect score in the IMO.
The three top students from the special economic zone were also worldly-wise. They did not show excessive enthusiasm towards Shen Qi, nor did they neglect him.
Everyone got along well and was very polite, occasionally discussing physics competition problems and making friends through these problems.
Since listening to Yun Wei and Gong Changwei's speeches, Shen Qi's mind has not been able to completely calm down.
The Langlands Program is undoubtedly brilliant; it's a purely mathematical program that unifies number theory and geometry into Grand Unification of rules for mathematics. Who has the qualifications and ability to formulate these rules? It's God.
However, it cannot be denied that the Langlands Program is a one-way street. Once you embark on this path, you either become a god or a demon. If you don't have the mindset to go all the way down this path, it's best not to delve into it. It's too difficult to fight this path alone.
Shen Qi's foray into physics was also a way to leave himself a way out. The research directions involved in mathematics and physics are much broader, so there will always be a way to make a living.
"Shen Qi, you seem distracted?" Mu Rong asked.
Today is May 2nd. Tomorrow is the theoretical exam for the CPhO National Final. Mu Rong and Shen Qi are having lunch in the cafeteria at Yenching University.
"I'm a little nervous and somewhat confused," Shen Qi said.
"You get nervous and confused too?" Mu Rong laughed, then said seriously, "Don't joke with me, Shen Qi. The main competition is tomorrow. I feel like you're acting a little strange."
"I'm so tired," Shen Qi sighed.
"That's how top students are, I can understand."
"I'm exhausted."
"Come on, Shen Qi, have some fish to nourish your brain."
"Before the 19th century, giants like Gauss, Euler, Riemann, and Cauchy had basically completed the research on this branch of mathematics. The 20th century belonged to modern giants like Poincare, Hilbert, Kolmogorov, and Grothendieck. In the 21st century, where is our way out? Ah, Teacher Mu, tell me, where is our way out?" Shen Qi held his head, looking very distressed.
"Oh my god..." Mu Rong was speechless for a moment, "Shen Qi, is this the reason you're so tired?"
"Mmm."
"How the hell do I know where mathematics is headed in the 21st century? I'm a PhD in astrophysics, and I'm still confused!" Mu Rong sighed to the heavens, then seriously reminded Shen Qi, "Hey, the national physics competition's theoretical questions are tomorrow morning! I'm begging you, Shen, can you please focus and forget about math for a while? You're my only hope, the only hope in the whole school!"
"Survival of the fittest determines the fate of nations; let nature take its course."
"..."
Mu Rong was quite worried. She noticed that Shen Qi was acting strangely. If she had known this, she wouldn't have gone out with her best friend these past few days. She should have kept an eye on Shen Qi, seeing what he had been doing, where he had gone, and who he had been in contact with. "Shen Qi, you're talking to me about the new mathematics curriculum on the eve of the CPhO National Final? Have you been brainwashed?"
On the morning of May 3rd, the CPhO National Final theoretical exam is about to begin.
The exam will be held from 8:30 to 11:30, lasting three hours.
During the May Day holiday, university students did not attend classes, and Yenching University vacated a teaching building for the theoretical examination of the CPhO National Final.
At 8:30, the theory exam officially began.
The theory exam consists of eight questions, all of which are calculation problems. Each question is worth 35 points, and the total score is 280 points.
Shen Qi's progress in answering the questions wasn't fast; to be honest, this exam paper was quite difficult.
In the first hour, Shen Qi completed two problems.
For the third question, Shen Qi pondered for a full half hour without writing anything.
The question stem for question three is written as follows:
"In NaCl crystal, the sum of the energies of interionic interactions can be expressed as:"
Ep=N(am/rm-αe^2/4πε0r)
Where N is the number of positive and negative ion pairs in the crystal, which is a very large integer; r is the distance between adjacent positive and negative ions; e is the electron charge; am, α, and m are constants; the minimum value of Ep is called the binding energy.
Find the values of am, α, and m.
If you're not a physics whiz, you probably wouldn't even understand the question itself.
Below the question, the question setter provided some reference formulas and useful physical constants:
(1+x)^β=1+βx+1/2!*β(β-1)x^2+1/3!*β(β-1)(β-2)x^3+...
According to Bohr statistics, C is a coefficient characterizing the linear expansion of a crystal.
C = -3NkA^3/4A^2
The relevant physical constants are: e = 1.6 × 10^-19 C;
ε0=8.9×10^-12C^2/(Nm^2); k=1.38×10^-23J/K
If you don't understand the question, providing the mathematical formulas and physical constants above is pointless.
"This question is about Solid State Physics, a very annoying branch of physics." Shen Qi spent half an hour analyzing the question before finally finding a solution.
Solid State Physics is a branch of physics that studies the physical properties, microstructure, and interactions of microscopic particles in solids.
That's a bit tricky.