Chapter 263 - 155: Study On, There is No End to Learning (Part 2)

Chapter 263: Chapter 155: Study On, There is No End to Learning (Part 2)

Wu Tao froze, the lollipop in his mouth stopping its twirl.

"Not closed? If it’s not closed, the mapping process will be incomplete."

Chen Zhuo stood up and walked to the blackboard.

He picked up the half-stick of chalk Wu Tao had just placed in the chalk tray. Next to the divergent integral Wu Tao had written, he began to write out the Discrete Matrix he had just conceived.

Then, in the top-right corner of the matrix, he added a small variable: t.

"Introduce an imaginary time variable."

Chen Zhuo’s voice was calm as the chalk continued to glide across the blackboard.

"We don’t require the matrix to close immediately in the spatial dimension. Instead, we let it dynamically compensate during the mapping process, in accordance with the imaginary time t."

Wu Tao shot to his feet, his eyes glued to the blackboard.

"As long as the limit of the compensation equals zero as imaginary time approaches infinity, then on the final observation plane, the Jacobian determinant will still resolve to zero."

Chen Zhuo turned his head and looked at Wu Tao.

"There would be no spatial distortion."

The conference room fell so silent that every breath could be heard.

Wu Tao stood frozen in place, staring without blinking at the matrix with the imaginary time variable. His mind raced, frantically verifying the feasibility of this entirely new path.

Suddenly, Wu Tao yanked the lollipop out of his mouth.

"Holy shit! Imaginary time dynamic compensation!"

Wu Tao strode to the blackboard in two steps and snatched the chalk from Chen Zhuo’s hand.

"If you substitute t into the partial differential equation, the divergent term of the Singularity can be directly canceled out by the imaginary time term!"

Wu Tao’s voice trembled with excitement. He didn’t even bother to erase the board, simply finding a relatively clean spot and beginning to furiously work through the deductions, following Chen Zhuo’s line of thought.

A torrent of new equations poured out like a waterfall.

Chen Zhuo took two steps back, giving Wu Tao space.

He watched as Wu Tao practically pressed his entire body against the blackboard. When the chalk in his hand snapped, he didn’t even bother to get a new piece, simply clutching the stub and continuing to scrawl.

"It works! It absolutely works!"

Wu Tao muttered as he wrote.

"Damn it, shoving the time dimension into topological space as a compensation term..."

Chen Zhuo pulled out a chair and sat back down.

He didn’t interrupt. Although they had a direction, proving the process of this imaginary time compensation completely and rigorously would still require an enormous amount of calculation.

After about half an hour, Wu Tao finally stopped writing.

There wasn’t a single empty spot left on the blackboard.

Wu Tao turned around and let out a long breath. His previously exhausted face was now flushed with a feverish excitement.

"We’ve cleared the first-stage Singularity."

Wu Tao tossed the last bit of chalk dust in his hand into the trash can. He clapped the dust from his hands, walked over to the table, and chugged a large gulp of cold water.

He turned to look at Chen Zhuo, unable to stop himself from laughing as he swore good-naturedly.

"How the hell does your brain work, kid? Coming up with a wild idea like building a bridge off a cliff."

Chen Zhuo took a fresh sheet of scratch paper and lowered his head, drawing a few auxiliary lines on it.

"The bridge is up, but you still have to build the piers."

Chen Zhuo said without looking up.

"Proving the convergence of the imaginary time compensation is no small amount of work."

"That’s just grunt work. As long as the direction is right, it’s just a matter of pulling a few all-nighters."

Wu Tao pulled out a chair and sat down, completely reinvigorated.

"Let’s derive the characteristic equation for this compensation term today."

Chen Zhuo slid the scratch paper in his hand over to him.

"You work on the partial differential expansion for the left half, and I’ll calculate the convergence limit for the right half," Chen Zhuo said.

Wu Tao took the paper and pen without hesitation.

"Deal. Once we’re done with this part, lunch at the cafeteria is on me."

Without another word, they both lowered their heads and began the tedious calculations on paper.

The conference room fell silent once more.

In mathematics, before a blackboard and scratch paper, there is only right and wrong. There is only what can be solved and what cannot.

「Several days later.」

The underground wind tunnel laboratory at the Keda Applied Physics Institute had none of the quiet, antiquated atmosphere of the School of Mathematics.

The spacious subterranean area was brightly lit. Rows of man-high server racks lined the walls, their indicator lights blinking.

Chen Zhuo took off his jacket and changed into a standard-issue white lab coat.

The coat was a little big for him, so he rolled up the cuffs twice.

He stood behind the blast-proof glass of the main control console, with a clear view of the small, several-meter-long test wind tunnel not far away.

Zhang Yuan, dressed in dark gray work overalls and with a pair of soundproof earmuffs hanging around his neck, was adjusting parameters at the main console.

"The matrix algorithm has been burned into the underlying test board."

Zhang Yuan stared at the monitor in front of him and tapped a few keys on the keyboard.

"The preset broad-error compensation is also enabled. Today, we’re primarily measuring the wind resistance pressure distribution on the model high-speed train head at two hundred kilometers per hour."

Chen Zhuo nodded, his gaze falling on another monitor to the side.

He was confident in his algorithm.

As long as the fan started spinning and the sensors captured the data, the matrix would process it, and the screen should smoothly render the pressure curves for each cross-section of the train head.

"All stations, prepare for startup."

Zhang Yuan picked up the intercom and spoke, then pressed the green start button on the console.

An instant later, a low rumble penetrated the blast-proof glass.

The turbofan motor in the wind tunnel began to accelerate. The deep hum was so powerful it sent a subtle, high-frequency vibration through the anti-static floor beneath their feet.

Chen Zhuo’s eyes were locked on the monitor.

As the wind speed increased, a stream of data began to scroll rapidly on the left side of the screen, while on the right, a curve started to form on the coordinate axis.