Meet the principal

"The sandwich is delicious."

Claire felt the rich aroma of gravy between her lips and teeth, as well as the taste enjoyment brought by the fresh vegetables, and couldn't help but make a sound of pleasure.

In the end, she succumbed to the alluring aroma, asked Reiner for a sandwich, and immediately became immersed in the wonderful food, unable to extricate herself.

But soon, Claire noticed Reiner's profound eyes, and immediately turned away, speaking in a somewhat unclear tone.

"Don't get me wrong, I just wanted to learn how to make this sandwich, so..."

Reiner smiled when he heard Claire's lame explanation, but did not expose it and turned to look at Charlotte.

"Charlotte, what do you think of that paper?"

Charlotte raised her head when she heard Reiner calling her name. She was still holding Reiner's paper in her hand. After thinking for a moment, the girl answered.

"The views stated in the paper are very clear, and the relevant proofs are also very comprehensive. To be honest, I can't believe that the experiment in this is the one I did before."

After a pause, the girl continued.

"But there's one thing I don't quite understand, and that's the content of the penultimate chapter."

Opening the paper, Charlotte pointed to one of the pages. The title here read "Chapter 4: Research on mass changes during the experiment." In this chapter, Reiner focused on the basic viewpoint of the law of conservation of mass. , in Xia Luo's view, it is really difficult to understand.

Before this, Xia Luo had never considered what would happen to the mass of the object before and after the experiment, nor did she understand the value of the discussion.

Because in her concept, constant quality seems to be a matter of course, but after Reiner mentioned it, Charlotte realized that there seemed to be another mystery.

"Why does the total mass of the products before and after the reaction not change when one substance is burned and becomes another substance? From this experiment, the mass seems to be transferred from the limestone to the white rock and this special gas Among them, by what method is this achieved?”

Listening to Xia Luo's question, Reiner nodded slightly.

This girl is indeed very accomplished in alchemy, and she realized the problem so quickly.

"Are you trying to say that quality has a carrier?"

Reiner was persuasive and what he said surprised Claire.

In Master Hohenheim's alchemical theory, mass is an inherent property of an object, which expresses the amount of elements contained in the object. In his view, elements have a unified mass. The more elements an object contains, the greater its mass. Large, the mass of an object per unit volume is called density.

For example, the reason why rocks and metals have different densities is the amount of earth elements. Within a unit volume, there are more earth elements that make up iron, but less earth elements that make up rocks. This is the fundamental difference between the two as different substances.

However, in Lehner's thesis experiment, it was obvious that part of the mass of the limestone was transferred into the special gas, which seemed to involve the transformation of elements. After all, according to common sense, the earth element should be heavy and stable, as opposed to the flowing and light wind. The elements are completely different.

But Master Hohenheim has long asserted that the four basic elements are the most basic composition of objects, and they cannot be transformed into each other. All other substances are condensed from the four basic elements.

If we could really find a way to transform elements into each other, it would be a huge discovery.

Even though running water can turn into steam after being heated, mages have long understood that those are not real gases, but just small water droplets that cannot be observed with the naked eye. No one has yet been able to achieve the true transformation of elements.

From this point of view, that special gas is a new substance mixed with earth elements and wind elements?

That's so weird.

Because Reiner's discussion seems to be saying that the basic elements are not really "basic" and that they can be further subdivided, which completely goes against the current alchemical theory.

While Claire was lost in thought, Charlotte shook her head slightly.

"I don't know. I don't think we can find conclusive evidence just by relying on this experiment."

After all, in the experiment of heating limestone to produce white rock, the material was not completely transformed, nor did something extra appear out of thin air. In the absence of a clear gas composition, it cannot be said that that special gas must have come from gray rock. They need more direct evidence.

Alchemy has always been a subject based on experiments. Any theory may be overturned by special experiments. But on the other hand, if it cannot be reproduced experimentally, then all conjectures are meaningless.

"I also think that maybe the four basic elements are not the most basic substances. For example, water may be a combination of certain substances. Of course, these are all conjectures. I may find an opportunity to do some experiments to verify it recently."

Reiner pretended to be helpless and said that although he had 10,000 ways to prove that water is actually a compound, it seemed too arrogant to propose it so hastily. After all, the first paper could be said to have been inspired by Xia Luo's experiment. , a second subversive paper would be suspicious if presented so soon.

He also needs to wait for his paper to ferment in the academic world, and everyone starts to change their minds before proceeding step by step. Although there may be surprises, such as a certain academic master relying on Reiner's paper to inspire inspiration and decompose water. Although this situation is inevitable, it is better than having Reiner captured and sliced ​​for research.

"Mr. Principal, do you already have an idea?"

Xia Luo was a little surprised. These questions that they had not dared to think about in the past, the cynical-looking principal in front of her had already begun to think about it. Is he gifted or crazy?

"I don't have a clue yet, but I have a general direction."

Reiner decided to end this topic. This first paper has not been published yet, so don't think too long-term.

"Let's not mention this for now, Teacher Claire. I need to leave school tomorrow. You come with me."

"ah?"

Claire obviously hadn't recovered from the discussion just now. When she heard Reiner calling her name, she responded with some hesitation.

"Go, where?"

"Didn't I say before that we need to find an alchemy workshop that can produce Coke?"

Reiner asked rhetorically, looking at Claire with a look of care for the disabled.

"Uh, I, of course I remember, I mean, where are we going to find the alchemy workshop?"

Claire hurriedly concealed it, her embarrassed look was quite endearing.

"right here."

Pointing to a simple map spread out on the table, Reiner smiled.