Chapter 321 - 124: Is Mathematics Just Going Around in Circles?!_3

Words : 996 Updated : Oct 5th, 2025

Chapter 321: Chapter 124: Is Mathematics Just Going Around in Circles?!_3Qiao Yu shook his head and said: "No need. By the way, recommend me a related paper, I want to understand the detailed process and technical details of carbon dioxide hydrogenation to methanol." "Uh... I have it in my computer, I’ll pull it up for you. Is the pure English version okay?" "Does it contain a lot of specialized chemical engineering terms?" "Yes, but not many." "That’s not a problem, just help me translate those terms when we encounter them." ... To be honest, Liu Hao actually wasn’t too accustomed to Qiao Yu’s working style, but he appreciated it. Qiao Yu even refused to take data out of the lab. How to put it? Actually, after collaborating several times with the Math Research Center, it didn’t bother him much anymore, but after all, these data were obtained by him leading his junior brothers and sisters, handing them over casually did indeed feel uncomfortable. Qiao Yu didn’t mind working in the office area at all, he quite liked it. Although their current project belongs to the inorganic realm, this is still a chemistry laboratory building, and it’s common for some smells to waft from the organic area to the office area. Although Yanbei University enforces strict laboratory safety standards, there are inevitably occasional lapses. For example, when a fume hood inexplicably stops working; insufficient wind speed setting on the flexible hood during bench work; or occasionally someone forgets to perform the routine full-room ventilation for static reagents... In short, unpleasant odors are unavoidable. In the infamous four pitfalls of biochemistry, environmental and material sciences, it’s not just about enduring the hardships of staying in the lab. Especially in chemistry, dealing daily with all kinds of toxic, even highly toxic reagents, and various flammable, explosive hazardous substances, any carelessness could lead to physical annihilation. Especially at school, many times it’s students operating. Silly mistakes like forgetting to balance the centrifuge are still frequently made, though modern centrifuges are mostly equipped with automatic balance detectors, or else the commotion... When exchanging with peers, some are even proud not to use a fume hood when playing with acids, not realizing any accidental incident could completely ruin a person. There are also those who, to save effort, directly pour organic solutions into the sink after the experiment. So Liu Hao can understand why many people are reluctant to stay in the chemistry lab building. Even if you’re not foolish, you can’t guarantee others aren’t. If he hadn’t chosen the wrong path back then, he would definitely stay as far away as possible from this building. Now that Qiao Yu is willing to help out in the office area inside the building, Liu Hao is very appreciative. Anyway, now some of the experiments don’t require him to do it personally, so he simply stayed by Qiao Yu’s side and started reading the paper. In areas Qiao Yu didn’t understand, he would explain a few sentences. Just like that, the morning passed quickly, and at noon, a junior from the lab was asked to bring lunchboxes for everyone. "Alright, I roughly understand. I don’t think it’s difficult; create a differential equation model, segment fit the data according to your temperature dependency analysis, and then process the data. The abnormal fluctuations in the rate constants might be due to larger experimental data errors under high temperature conditions. I’ll make some adjustments on that. By the way, I think the most critical point in your experiment is the step of formic acid reducing to formaldehyde. Moreover, I feel that the overall reaction rate at 500K is unstable, likely because of this step. The increase in temperature makes this step become the bottleneck for conversion. Your results are continuously unstable, which is likely related to the catalyst’s activity. So next, just focus on this step, other steps can be ignored. There shouldn’t be any issues. My suggestion is to try increasing the activity of the catalyst surface combining with HCOOH. For the specific model, give me three hours." After lunch, in less than half an hour, Qiao Yu gave his opinion. "Hmm? Three hours? Plus, can you be sure the problem is in that step?" Liu Hao was a bit puzzled. Qiao Yu pointed at the data and said: "Brother Liu, you should have studied mathematics in your undergraduate phase at the chemistry institute, right? This is actually simple differential equations, linear algebra, and statistics and data analysis content. The paper you recommended covers things about reaction path optimization, combined with analyzing these data, it’s basically this issue. It’s really not difficult, a system of ordinary differential equations can calculate the overall reaction rate. Then use your data to separately perform Arrhenius fitting for each temperature segment, find the relationship between the rate constant and temperature. Perform regression fit for data of each temperature segment separately, such as nonlinear least squares method. Then use regularization techniques to reduce overfitting at high temperature conditions, design a penalty term λ∑Ki to add to the objective function... Anyway, rest assured, three hours are enough. I’ll finish by four o’clock, and you can use it first; I think it’s most likely fine." Liu Hao stayed silent. But others in the office area who were still diligently working looked at Qiao Yu with some surprise. But no one said much... A confident guy from the School of Mathematics is not the first, everyone is used to it. It’s just that this guy is younger. After staying in the lab for a long time, resistance is quite strong against such boasts. You’ll know in a few hours if it works, everyone can wait. ... Qiao Yu got into work mode and naturally wouldn’t care about how others viewed him. He simply felt that chemistry, after all, was very simple. As for Liu Hao, he had already gathered everyone together, specifically moved to a nearby small meeting room for a group meeting discussion.

Chapter 321 - 124: Is Mathematics Just Going Around in Circles?!_3

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