PFC Chapter 23: Is this ancient mathematics? It's way beyond the curriculum!
Chapter 23: Is this ancient mathematics? It's way beyond the curriculum!
Xia Chengkun and the others were startled and quickly returned to their seats, sitting up straight.
The noise in the classroom suddenly stopped.
The teacher began, "Today, we have new students enrolling. You all know them, so there's no need for further introductions."
"I was originally a Doctor of the Imperial Academy, surnamed Song, and I taught mathematics. You can call me Doctor Song."
"Since we are unsure of the progress of the five new students in their arithmetic studies, we will conduct an assessment today."
"I need to assess your basic math skills so that I can tailor my teaching accordingly in the future."
Upon hearing that there would be an exam today, the students below displayed a variety of expressions.
Some were apprehensive, some were excited, and others were indifferent, unmoved by praise or blame.
Xia Chengzong saw that Xia Chengxu, Xia Chengli, Xia Chengyan, and Xia Chengren were all eager to make their move and were itching to get started.
He suddenly realized.
This exam was probably orchestrated by them, right?
Your goal is to defeat me?
I have to say, it's really quite childish!
Only a brat could do something so childish.
However, Xia Chengzong just loves to bully naughty kids!
In Xia Chengzong's eyes, these guys had become his emotional ATMs.
Want to beat me in mathematics?
Hmph, you guys are probably overthinking it!
Looking at Xia Chengqian, Xia Chengkun, and the other little ones, they were utterly helpless.
Because they had never learned mathematics while living in the Prince's Palace.
The only tutor in the Prince's mansion was Xia Shouzhong, but Xia Shouzhong himself was not good at mathematics, so he was naturally unable to teach them.
It looks like they're going to embarrass themselves in today's exam.
……
Soon, the exam papers were handed out.
After receiving the test paper, Xia Chengzong discovered that there were ten questions in total, and they had half an hour to prepare.
The exam questions of this era were unlike those of later generations, which included multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, and the like.
The topics of this era are all major ones.
Xia Chengzong looked at the first question: There is an unknown number of objects. When counted in groups of three, there are two left over; when counted in groups of five, there are three left over; when counted in groups of seven, there are two left over. How many objects are there?
That's it? It's incredibly easy!
Xia Chengzong wrote down the answer, twenty-three, almost without thinking.
Then he guessed that next, there might be another problem like the chicken and rabbit problem.
Then he quickly saw that the second question was about chickens and rabbits in the same cage.
Well, these are just some of the mathematical problems from ancient times.
There are pheasants and rabbits in the same cage. There are 35 heads and 94 feet. How many pheasants and rabbits are there?
Answer: There are 12 rabbits and 23 pheasants.
The third problem concerns the depth of the well and the length of the rope, which can be solved simply by setting up a system of equations.
Ancient mathematical problems have only remained within the scope of elementary and secondary education in later generations.
For someone who had attended university, it was child's play and posed no challenge whatsoever.
From the fourth, fifth, sixth, and all the way to the eighth question.
He would simply list out the equation and quickly give the answer.
For him, the journey was smooth sailing and fraught with difficulty.
Meanwhile, the other students in the school were either deep in thought or scratching their heads in frustration.
Even Xia Chengxu and the other three were racking their brains.
Their high status certainly allowed them to ask the professor to do certain things.
However, these professors also have their bottom lines; they set extremely difficult questions and did not leak the questions or answers to them beforehand.
Therefore, even for the four of them, finding the answer was extremely difficult.
As for Xia Chengqian and his two siblings, they found math problems to be like reading gibberish.
They recognized each word individually, but when put together, they were completely baffled.
At this point, Xia Chengzong had already seen the ninth question.
Construct a trapezoidal observatory: 56 zhang wide at the top, 3 zhang high, and 5 zhang long.
Given the quantity of materials used, find the width of the base in feet (in feet).
Xia Chengzong was also surprised after reading the title.
This is a cubic equation problem in engineering. Given the volume, height, and length of the top side of a trapezoidal frustum, find the length of the bottom side.
This question, even in later generations, would be a high school level problem.
Did ancient mathematics contain such difficult problems?
This question wasn't extremely difficult for him, but it was still somewhat unexpected.
He wrote out the equation, and soon wrote down the answer.
Then he looked at the last question: Given a Pythagorean triangle with a sum of 30 and a difference of 6 between the quadrants, find the diameter of its inscribed circle.
This question completely stunned Xia Chengzong.
Is this some kind of ancient mathematical problem?
Isn't that beyond the scope of the curriculum?
This was the first time he had realized that the ancients' research in mathematics had gone so far.
Of course, this still didn't stump him.
He drew the diagram and quickly figured out how to solve the problem.
Then the answer was quickly calculated and filled in.
At this point, with only half the exam time remaining, he had already finished all the questions.
He suddenly felt bored and couldn't help but look at Xia Chengqian and the other two.
They looked completely bewildered, as if they had given up on life, and Xia Chengzong couldn't help but chuckle.
At that moment, Xia Chengkun caught sight of Xia Chengzong.
He quickly pointed to Xia Chengzong's exam paper, indicating that he should copy down the answers for him.
Xia Chengzong nodded slightly, and then he carefully protected the exam paper.
夏承坤负面情绪+1+1+1+1+1
Seeing this, Xia Chengzong smiled slightly and was about to put the test paper aside for him to copy.
But then Dr. Song walked up to him and asked sternly, "What are you doing instead of answering the questions properly?"
Xia Chengzong said helplessly, "Sir, I have already answered all the questions."
"Finished answering, how many questions did you answer?"
"I've answered all ten questions."
Upon hearing this answer, Dr. Song showed a disdainful expression and directly took away Xia Chengzong's exam paper.
This exam paper was created by him personally and is extremely difficult.
The first eight questions were so difficult that perhaps no one in the entire school could solve them all.
The next two questions were even more difficult.
Even for him, it wasn't easy to answer; it was beyond the scope of the curriculum.
His original intention was to give these students a hard time; he didn't expect any of them to be able to solve the problem.
Dr. Song simply couldn't believe that Xia Chengzong, a seven-year-old child, could solve all ten questions, especially in such a short time.
He was very displeased that such a young child was full of lies.
Back at the podium, he picked up Xia Chengzong's exam paper and began to grade it.
The first question, correct; the second question, correct; the third question, correct.
As I revised it step by step, it all turned out to be correct.
This was completely unexpected by Dr. Song. He never imagined that the little boy would actually solve the first few questions.
However, he still didn't believe he could solve the last two problems.
The ninth question is correct!
The tenth question is correct!
hiss!
This made Dr. Song gasp in surprise.
How... how is this possible?
If the question hadn't been created by him overnight without going through anyone else's hands, and if no one else had known the question beforehand...
He almost suspected that the exam questions had been leaked!