sjar Chapter 18 The Battle Between Heaven and Man
Chapter 18 The Battle Between Heaven and Man
As the questions progressed, the exam paper gradually revealed its ferocious fangs, and the difficulty began to increase sharply.
Question 7 is an extremely insidious trap set by the question setter, making it very easy for people to overlook the extremely hidden constraints.
Once you step in, it's not easy to get out in less than half an hour.
But to Su Hao, this trap was like a tiny pit one centimeter deep on flat ground, utterly useless.
In his eyes, which had been reshaped by mathematics, the numbers in the problem were not scattered fragments, but groups following a specific algebraic pattern.
Even if the conditions change drastically, the overall structure of the group remains as solid as ever in his mind, and he can see it clearly at a glance!
Question 10 is the same dirty trick again.
The limiting solutions at both ends of the nonlinear functional must be calculated; otherwise, an infinite loop will be entered.
However, Su Hao didn't treat the root as a simple number at all; his brain directly projected the three-dimensional trajectory of the entire function graph.
Brush brush!
There was still no pause.
It wasn't until the eleventh question that the experts truly unleashed their forty-meter-long swords and began the high-difficulty challenge.
It involves high-dimensional geometry of complex planes, obscure sequence limit analysis, and intricate graph theory.
But Su Hao still didn't use any drafts, and filled in the answer sheet in his mind without even thinking.
until--
"Um? 』
Su Hao, who was working on the fourteenth question, suddenly stopped his pen in mid-air.
Qiu Jianguo, who had been staring intently at Su Hao, now had a fine layer of cold sweat on his back.
As he watched Su Hao solve the problem with godlike speed, his academic knowledge, built up over decades, was being violently challenged.
"That's impossible... Even my graduate students would take five minutes to solve that complex geometry problem!"
He got the result in one glance?! Is he a monster?!
When he saw Su Hao finally stop writing, Qiu Jianguo inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief.
"Finally stuck... Yes, that makes sense..."
However, Qiu Jianguo soon realized something was wrong.
Su Hao's gaze did not fall on the thirteenth question, which resembled gibberish, but rather...
He stared intently at the half of his answer sheet that he had already filled in.
1, 4, 2, 5, 3, 2, 5, 3, 1, 4, 3, 1……
Su Hao stared blankly at the options.
The numbers 1 to 5 are distributed at an extremely strange yet unusually uniform frequency.
To the average person, it's just a string of random numbers with no discernible pattern.
But in Su Hao's mind, a 5x5 square grid suddenly appeared!
Immediately afterwards, the answer numbers he had just filled in seemed to be given magical coordinates, and they were wildly rearranged and combined in this multidimensional grid.
hum-
In that instant, Su Hao's pupils suddenly contracted.
He realized that these numbers, arranged horizontally and vertically, were secretly maintaining an extremely strange and precise balance!
Orthogonal array?
Su Hao's eyes lit up.
This is no coincidence!
The probability of this numerical arrangement appearing by pure coincidence in a set of 25 multiple-choice questions, where all are five options, is one in 500,000.
If we take into account the strict symmetry of orthogonal patterns, the probability is less than one in a hundred billion!
What does this tell us?
This is clearly the work of someone who has nothing better to do than deliberately embed the correct answers to all the questions into an extremely large combinatorial mathematical structure, like a work of art!
Su Hao then made a move that terrified Professor Qiu behind him:
He slammed the exam paper onto the corner of the table with a "thud," not even glancing at it.
Only one answer sheet was left.
Qiu Jianguo's eyes almost popped out of their sockets:
"Hey, look at the questions! What are you doing throwing the test paper away?! Are you just giving up already?!"
Su Hao then began to unravel this mystery.
The grid in my mind, resembling a chessboard, was gradually filled with numbers.
Looking down the columns, no two numbers are repeated.
Looking along the horizontal line, the five numbers are magically arranged in a straight line, presenting an absolute sense of symmetrical beauty.
"This is... a Latin square!"
Su Hao quickly wrote down a formula on the draft paper.
He immediately formulated an extremely audacious hypothesis.
If we consider these twenty-five questions as coordinates (i, j) on a grid, we only need to find the specific values of the hidden coefficients a and b...
With a simple congruence equation, the answers to all the subsequent questions can be directly derived and restored!
There's absolutely no need to look at the original question again!
Therefore, the general solution to the correct answer is... (a·i + b·j) mod 5 + 1!
pat.
Su Hao put down his pen.
The 25 squares in his mind instantly shone with golden light and were completely filled with numbers!
Every row and every column presents a beautifully orderly and breathtaking structure!
Su Hao licked his lips. He felt that he no longer needed to look at the test paper; he already knew the answer to the next question.
The position corresponding to coordinates (3, 3).
According to the formula, the answer to question 13 should be 4.
To verify this crazy hypothesis, he pulled the test paper back and looked at question number thirteen.
Variables, substitutions, elimination, differentiation... all the steps are completed in my mind at the speed of light.
Without a doubt, the absolute answer calculated is 4!
A dazzling smile of excitement bloomed on Su Hao's face.
It felt like an unseen exam paper designer, equally mischievous, was reaching out to him from across time and space:
"Hey kid, did you spot this pattern I left behind?"
It's worth noting that there are fewer than ten people nationwide who achieve a perfect score in the preliminary round of the International Mathematical Olympiad each year.
This is definitely the ultimate praise and hidden Easter egg reserved by the crazy genius who set the questions, specifically for those unparalleled geniuses who can answer them all correctly and stand at the top of the pyramid.
Of course, the test creators probably never expected that any student would be so idle during the exam as to study the patterns in the answers and figure out the secret.
However, just ten minutes into the exam, Su Hao dismantled the entire trap that the old man had painstakingly set up!
Since the password has been cracked, what's the point of even looking at the questions?
Question 15, Question 16, Question 17...
Su Hao had completely entered a state of selflessness.
He didn't even bother to look at the exam paper!
Without even glancing at the questions, he frantically scribbled on the answer sheet with his 2B pencil, like a sewing machine!
All the complicated calculation steps are omitted, and the answer is obtained by directly substituting into the formula of the Latin square.
To be on the safe side, Su Hao scanned the questions in reverse after completing each one to verify that they were perfectly matched and accurate!
The examination room was completely silent at this moment.
The only sound was Su Hao frantically filling in the answer sheet.
Qiu Jianguo was completely petrified.
He stood in the aisle, like a statue.
His gaze was fixed on Su Hao's answer sheet, his brain completely shut down.
"He...he didn't even look at the test paper...what is he doing?"
What is he doing?! Filling in the blanks with his eyes closed?!
Are you fucking using the answer sheet as a sketchbook?!
At this moment, Qiu Jianguo's inner roar almost blew the top of his head off.
In this way, Su Hao swept through the puzzle with unstoppable momentum, reaching the 24th question without a single error.
Finally, we've arrived at the last and most challenging question.
Question 25.
Su Hao skillfully substituted the coordinate formula: (5, 5).
The calculated grid answer is... option 1?
Once you paint over this 1, this perfect 5x5 Latin square will be complete, transforming into an impeccable work of art.
But out of respect for the final question, he casually glanced at the question stem of question 25.
[Combinations of rotational, projective, and symmetric properties of a cube...]
hum-
Su Hao's right eyelid twitched violently.
The alarm bells went off in my brain instantly!
Not right.
The grid formula should never be wrong; the first 24 questions perfectly fit the underlying logic of the Latin square matrix. So why did it fall on question 25...?
"Did I forget to include some condition?"
The relaxation on Su Hao's face disappeared, and his brain, like a supercomputer, began to rapidly replay the entire deduction process he had just completed.
However, there are no logical flaws anywhere.
Just in case, he gripped his pen tightly and, for the first time today, carefully worked through question 25 from beginning to end on the scratch paper in the exam room.
One minute.
Two minutes.
The massive geometric shapes kept spinning, folding, shattering, and reassembling in my mind.
When the final result was revealed, Su Hao's pupils suddenly contracted.
The answer remains option 5.
In the absolutely perfect matrix of the Latin square, this position must be 1!
Thump, thump.
The examination room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Su Hao could even hear his heart pounding like a war drum, and his breathing gradually became heavy.
"Calm down. This isn't some kind of brain teaser about finding patterns in a sequence, nor is it a jigsaw puzzle!"
This is an important exam where you must provide the correct answers!
Rationally, every nerve in his body was screaming:
Fill in 5! Fill in 5! That is the only truth derived from mathematical logic!
However, when he was about to fill in the answer sheet, his hands began to tremble uncontrollably, as if he had Parkinson's disease.
"Let's just quickly apply a 5 and end this already!"
Su Hao gritted his teeth, closed his eyes tightly, and pressed his pen firmly against the box representing "5" on the answer sheet.
With just a little effort, this ordeal can be ended.
but……
He just couldn't bring himself to do it.
I just can't get it to go in!!!
Once this 5 is painted over, the perfect Latin square, radiating divine brilliance, will collapse at the last corner!
It feels like forcing a hardcore obsessive-compulsive to smear a pile of dog poop on the face of a Mona Lisa!
This is absolutely, absolutely unacceptable!!
He is a person with an extreme, almost pathological, pursuit of mathematical aesthetics.
He could not accept this disgusting exception, nor could he tolerate destroying this perfectly natural, almost miraculous, arrangement of numbers with his own hands!
"The person who set this question is definitely a psychopath..."
Su Hao gritted his teeth and stared intently at the answer sheet, caught in a mental struggle.