Greetings, Mister Principal

Chapter 104: Sharon's Discovery

The result of the inspection had not yet come out, but a question from Sharon made Reiner busy again.

This day was the third day after Helena and others had left, and Reiner was reading the latest journals in his office.

The first paper on "Truth" was the eighth-ring mage His Excellency Surrey Newington and the seventh-ring mage His Excellency Clark Holland's paper on electromagnetic waves. In this paper, they established four calculus equations to describe electromagnetic waves, almost explaining the phenomenon of thunder and lightning that had plagued the mages for many years.

At the same time, through the derivation of the equations, they found that the propagation speed of electromagnetic waves in the void was exactly the speed of light, which strongly proved that light was an electromagnetic wave from the side.

In academia, there were currently many discussions on the nature of light, but they were basically confined to two theories. One of them was that light was a kind of wave. This argument could be confirmed from the phenomenon of light diffraction and interference.

Another theory was that light was a kind of particle. This was an idea inherited from ancient magic. In the beginning, there was no theoretical proof of modern magic, but a year ago, Ludwig, the ninth-ring mage of the Storm Council found that when the light was used to illuminate a thin metal sheet, a weak current was generated. The magnitude of this current had nothing to do with the intensity of the light but was related to the type of light.

If light was a wave, the greater the intensity of the light, the more energy it would carry, and the greater the current it would generate when it hit the sheet of metal. But this was contrary to the experiment.

The mages believed that light was actually a kind of particle, and different lights were different particles, so that the electric current generated by irradiating the metal sheet would be different.

The two factions were arguing endlessly, and they never reached an agreement.

Reiner put down the journal and let out a long sigh.

On the earth, light had both wave and particle properties, that was to say, it was both light and particle. Reiner was not sure whether this world was like this. His current rank was too low and he did not have the ability to conduct related experiments. This question could only be put on hold for the time being.

Just when he was about to read the next essay, he heard a knock on the door, and Sharon was walking in with a large stack of parchment, with some doubts on her face.

"Mr. Reiner, I have some questions here."

Sharon said, unfolding the parchment in front of Reiner.

Reiner thought it was about the content of the mage card, but what appeared in front of him was a series of calculations.

"When I was studying these elements, I measured their element mass in a conventional method, but the results were different from those in the textbook."

Sharon explained. Her silver hair fell to her ears. Due to the hot weather, she tied her hair into a ponytail, which looked quite refreshing, especially the fair skin of the back of her neck, which would make many people fantasize about it.

Since he had promised to fund Sharon to study alchemy, Reiner gave her a lot of help, including opening an independent laboratory to her. The lab had several magic circles that used magic stones to easily measure the mass of elements, and they could be operated by apprentices.

In order to understand the nature of each element thoroughly, Sharon began to measure the mass of the element, but she did not expect to encounter trouble at the beginning.

Reiner didn't speak. He first carefully reviewed Sharon's experimental data and calculation process, and checked the calculations by himself before putting down his pen and speaking.

"Indeed, the relative element mass of the 'Borren' element should be 10.91046, but according to the measurement results, it is 10.88931. The gap between these elements cannot be simply explained by experimental errors."

The recognized element mass was accurate to five decimal places. If the experimental error was 0.01, it was already a world of difference.

"Are you sure you didn't make any major mistakes in the measurement process?"

Reiner asked again. He knew that there were probably such errors, but still needed to rule out all other influences.

"No, I used three methods to measure. The errors are all four to five decimal places, which are within the allowable range, but they are basically one to three percent different from the data in the textbook."

Sharon said seriously. She thought that there was a problem with her measurement at first, but after repeated calculations, this factor was excluded. The element she measured did have this problem.

"However, the recognized element mass is also obtained through multiple measurements. Why does such a problem occur?"

Reiner asked back. He was not eager to say his guess, but wanted to understand Sharon's thinking.

"Mhm, I'm also thinking about this issue. First of all, the simplest explanation is that one of the measurements made an error, but the possibility of this result is the lowest, because the latest relative element mass table was only released at the beginning of this year. The measurements it used are not too far behind."

Sharon analyzed. Obviously, these were the things she had thought about before, so it didn't take long for her to tell him.

"The second explanation is that there are impurities in the measured elements. However, I used materials purchased by the Academy from the Magic Association. This problem is very unlikely to occur. Moreover, I used the purification method after the reduction of the chemical composition, and got the same result, so the possibility of impurities can basically be ruled out."

After a pause, Sharon continued.

"There is another explanation, that is, these elements themselves have different relative element mass. This is the most incredulous explanation. I just listed them as a reference."

After listening to Sharon's words, Reiner nodded.

"Very well, it seems that you have already thought out a lot of things on your own."

He stood up, found a periodical on the shelf, and turned it to one of the pages.

"This is the thesis of the legendary mage - His Excellency Lanchester Steinen. He made some assumptions about the arrangement and distribution of the elements. He believes that the elements should be sorted according to the mass of the elements, and they would show a certain periodicity."

This was the issue of "Alchemy" that published Cornwall Penzance's paper on electrolysis. When Reiner read this paper in the past, he was amazed by the wisdom of His Excellency Steinen, especially when he proposed the periodicity of the elements.

It was just that the current element mass seemed to be inaccurate. Sorting based on the existing element mass would inevitably lead to errors and omissions, and it was impossible to make judgments about new elements. This was not a perfect solution.

"I think maybe the error of the relative element mass you measured is related to the law of the elements."

Reiner said. Sharon completely relied on herself, but she had touched the tail of the law of the elements. In the future, her achievements in alchemy would be unimaginable.

"I am going to prepare something in the afternoon, and tomorrow morning, we will measure the relative elemental mass of Borren again."