My IQ has been increasing year by year.

Chapter 75 Coincidence

The opening ceremony has ended.

The teams began to leave the field in an orderly manner.

Stepping out of the air-conditioned auditorium, the sunlight shone down on me again.

The cicadas chirped tirelessly in the trees.

Professor Wang slipped out through the side door with his teacup halfway through the opening ceremony.

They were standing under a big tree outside the auditorium, waiting for them.

The six people walked over and met up under the shade of a tree.

Professor Wang looked at them and slowly took a sip of tea.

"I just went to have a cigarette with some acquaintances."

He put down his teacup and glanced at the students.

"Get some information out of them."

"Forget about tomorrow afternoon's individual experiment; there are no ready-made kits available."

Zhou Kai was stunned for a moment, then immediately realized what was happening.

"Are they all individual parts?"

"Yes, not just electricity."

Professor Wang nodded and gestured with his finger.

"The organizing committee is going to completely expose your weaknesses this time. They won't provide you with a complete experimental kit for electrical engineering, only a breadboard, a soldering iron, and a bunch of loose resistors and capacitors. Whatever the problem requires, you have to build the circuit from scratch."

He paused for a moment, looking at He Gui, whose expression had changed slightly.

"Optics no longer has optical benches with standard scales. You might just get a few bare lenses, a laser light source, and a few iron stands. You'll have to figure out how to fix the lenses on a piece of white paper and find the coaxial adjustment axis yourself."

"The same applies to mechanics and thermodynamics."

Professor Wang picked up his teacup.

"Without smooth and flat tracks, and without perfectly insulated calorimeters, what we might send you is a rough wooden board or an aluminum cup without insulation. You'll have to design your own solutions, measure the physical quantities, and calculate the error compensation yourself."

This news is a disaster for students who are used to plug-and-play experimental setups and idealized physical models in schools.

Build a loop from scratch, adjust the optical axis with naked eye, and deal with rough models.

This not only tests one's understanding of the underlying physical logic, but also requires exceptional hands-on skills, error-correction abilities, and adaptability to real-world environments.

But to these people from the Jiangsu provincial team...

After a brief silence, the atmosphere suddenly became somewhat awkward.

Wang, who rarely spoke, grinned.

"That's it? After all this time, I thought I was going to be tested on some kind of high-tech, unfamiliar university equipment."

Zhou Kai's tightly furrowed brows relaxed, and a barely perceptible smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

In the Jinling Laboratory.

For the past two weeks, all they've been facing every day is a pile of broken, missing parts of metal.

Professor Wang forced them to handcraft time delay devices from disassembled parts, find interference fringes using discarded lenses, and calculate friction coefficients using rusted gears.

The organizing committee's "de-kitting" exam method is exactly the same as the old man Wang's torture methods.

In other words, they ran right into the line of fire.

In terms of basic skills and error elimination under rudimentary conditions, these six individuals are absolutely no less capable than any team in the country.

Professor Wang looked at their relaxed expressions, but instead of praising them, he turned and walked towards the bus.

"Alright, stop grinning like an idiot. Go eat first. You'd better keep your eyes open when you get to the exam hall this afternoon."

Two o'clock in the afternoon.

The bus took them to the exam venue tomorrow.

A newly built comprehensive laboratory building located deep within the university.

The exterior is a full glass curtain wall, exuding a modern feel.

Upon entering the building, the floor is covered with gray anti-static linen flooring, which makes almost no sound when you walk on it.

The volunteer leading the group led them up to the third floor and pushed open the double doors of a large physics laboratory.

In the huge laboratory, rows of brand-new experimental tables are neatly arranged.

The overhead light tubes are cool white anti-glare and eye-protecting.

Everything looked clean, tidy, and professional.

The desk was empty except for a white exam number label in the upper right corner.

Students from different provinces dispersed to find their respective exam seats.

They are not allowed to touch any of the instruments.

They could only look at their location, how far they were from the restroom, and get used to the environment of the space.

Lin Yi's seat was in the second-to-last row of the classroom.

Wang Huashao and Zhou Kai sat next to each other.

He Gui was in the first row, against the wall.

Miao Shi'an is in the middle of the third row.

Chen Zhuo's seat was on the right side of the aisle in the classroom.

Chen Zhuo stood in the corridor, and Zi Guang calmly scanned the entire laboratory.

Chen Zhuo walked to He Gui's seat.

To He Gui's left is the side wall of the laboratory.

Chen Zhuo looked at the white wall and gently tapped twice on a white plastic inspection cover on the wall.

"Return to peace."

Chen Zhuo turned his head to the side, his voice carrying a hint of discussion and reminder between friends.

He Gui turned to look at him.

Chen Zhuo pointed to that wall.

"Your spot is next to the main power supply cable tray in the lab."

He Gui looked at the wall with some confusion, not understanding Chen Zhuo's meaning.

Chen Zhuo smiled, his tone relaxed.

"This kind of large laboratory has a lot of instruments and consumes a lot of electricity. The main power lines run inside these walls."

"The experiment tomorrow afternoon will likely test the amplification or measurement of weak electrical signals."

"The 50 Hz alternating current in this wall will generate very strong power frequency electromagnetic interference."

He Gui suddenly realized what was happening, and his expression changed slightly.

The worst thing for weak signals is this kind of ubiquitous background noise interference, which will make the waveform on the oscilloscope a complete mess.

"What should we do then?" He Gui asked.

"It's not difficult to solve."

Chen Zhuo pointed to He Gui's large experimental table.

"When you come in tomorrow, try to place your breadboard and core test circuit on the right side of the table, as far away from this wall as possible."

""

"Also, all long wires connecting to the sensors must be twisted together by hand to minimize the loop area."

"This will minimize electromagnetic interference."

He Gui listened attentively and nodded vigorously.

"Okay, I got it. Move it to the right and twist the wires together."

Chen Zhu patted He Gui on the shoulder, then turned and walked forward down the corridor.

He stopped in front of Zhou Kai's seat.

The afternoon sunlight streamed in through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows on the west side of the laboratory.

Despite the glass filter, a bright spot of light still slanted across Zhou Kai's lab table.

Zhou Kai was sitting in a chair with his eyes closed, resting.

Chen Zhuo walked over and pointed to the sun outside the window.

"Brother Kai."

Zhou Kai opened his eyes and looked in the direction Chen Zhuo was pointing.

"You have a nice view from here."

Chen Zhuo spoke with a slightly joking tone.

"But the exam is from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow. After 3 p.m., the sunlight will be directly on your desk."

Zhou Kai glanced at the patch of light and raised an eyebrow slightly.

"If we do an optical interference experiment tomorrow, the natural light from the outside world will be the most deadly source of stray light interference."

Chen Zhuo continued.

"The background brightness is too high, and your interference fringes will be completely eaten up by the sunlight."

1

Zhou Kai immediately realized the seriousness of the problem.

Optical experiments have extremely high requirements for ambient light, and this kind of direct light is indeed a big problem.

He looked up at the window.

Do you have blackout curtains?

"Yes, in the groove in the ceiling."

Chen Zhuo pointed upwards.

"The first thing to do when you enter the exam room tomorrow, before they give you your curls, is to ask the proctor to pull the blackout curtains in your area all the way down."

"Just say it's to ensure the accuracy of the experimental data, and they'll agree."

Zhou Kai smiled and nodded.

"Understood, physical sun protection, thanks for reminding me."

Chen Zhuo didn't say anything more.

He walked around the examination room and, in the most natural and unintentional way, pointed out all the potential environmental hazards his teammates might encounter.

Four o'clock in the afternoon.

The site visit for the exam has ended.

The buses took each team back to the hotel.

It was evening.

Professor Wang didn't take them out for a fancy meal.

In the lead-up to a major exam, food safety and regularity are paramount.

They found a clean and tidy chain fast food restaurant near the hotel.

A few people pushed together a long table and ordered several simple rice bowls and noodles.

Everyone was quite relaxed while eating the hot meal.

Wang Huashao was discussing a beautiful sculpture they had just seen on campus with Miao Shi'an.

Chen Zhuo finished the last bite of rice in his bowl.

He put down his chopsticks, took out a napkin, and wiped his mouth.

Then, he picked up the disposable water cup next to him and took a sip of water.

"Everyone."

Chen Zhuo spoke, his tone calm, as if he were discussing a small matter with a friend.

The people at the table stopped talking and looked at him.

Chen Zhuo placed his hands on the table.

"Let's set some rules."

He looked at Zhou Kai and Wang Shuo with sincere eyes.

"After lunch tomorrow, no one is allowed to mention any of the questions from the morning's theory test."

"Regardless of whether you've solved the difficult problems or derived all the formulas, once the bell rings to hand in the papers, the morning's exam will be considered over, okay?"

Zhou Kai paused for a moment, chopsticks in his hand.

He frowned slightly and smiled helplessly.

"I miscalculated, and I can't even ask to get the answer right?"

Chen Zhuo looked at him.

"The afternoon experiment accounts for 60% of the total grade."

Chen Zhuo's tone remained gentle, but his logic was clear.

"Kai, what if you check the answers at noon and find that you got a constant wrong on the last big question?"

"When you're connecting the wires with the soldering iron this afternoon, you'll definitely still be thinking about that wrong formula and the points you lost will keep on your mind."

"It's too easy to make mistakes when conducting precise experiments with emotions and distractions in mind."

Chen Zhuo shrugged.

"How about we just play dumb and wait until the exam is over at 5 pm?"

After listening, Zhou Kai lowered his head and thought for two seconds.

He knew Chen Zhuo was right; the frustration of getting a question wrong was sometimes more tormenting than the question itself.

Under constant high pressure, timely mental isolation is more important than anything else.

Zhou Kai nodded in relief and put down his chopsticks.

"That makes sense. I'll take your advice and submit my paper, then it'll be zero."

He smiled and added.

"Whoever can't resist mentioning the test paper tomorrow at noon will have to treat the whole team to dinner."

Wang, who spoke little, immediately raised his hand.

"Alright! Then I'll definitely sew my mouth shut tomorrow at noon, and none of you will be able to cheat me out of a meal."

Miao Shi'an nodded gently in agreement.

Lin Yi bit the straw and drank the cola in the cup.

"I agree, forgetting things right after the exam is one of my strengths."

A simple dinner ended in a relaxed atmosphere.

8 PM.

Back in the hotel room.

Occasionally, footsteps could be heard coming from other rooms in the hallway.

After taking a shower, Chen Zhuo changed into his pajamas.

He neatly packed the stationery he would need for tomorrow's exam into a transparent file bag.

Place it in the very center of the desk.

It's 9:30 p.m.

Chen Zhuo walked to the wall.

"sleep."

He pressed the switch for the overhead light on the wall.

The room fell into quiet darkness.

The city lights outside the window filtered through the light-filtering curtains, casting a faint halo of light on the carpet.

There are only a few hours left until that high-intensity national showdown.

The team entered a deep and peaceful hibernation under the cover of night.

All sounds are silent.

We're just waiting for dawn.