Chapter 20 Time Slows Down
Time capsule.
Bai Yang has wanted to buy this thing for a long time.
His plan was obvious. BG4MSR claimed to be living in 2040, so as long as Bai Yang sent a slow delivery spanning twenty years, if the other party could receive it, it would prove that what she said was true.
It sounds simple and straightforward, but when you think about it carefully, it is actually very difficult to implement. You have to prevent cheating, falsification, lying, and loss, and it is something that a mere high school student must be able to do.
Place your order!
Bai Yang bought a small time capsule made of stainless steel, which came with two wrenches and a shovel, for 68 yuan each.
It’s very expensive. It will hurt for a while.
So what should I give?
What should be put in a time capsule?
Food? Medicine? Souvenirs? A letter?
No, none of that matters.
What is important is the timer, a watch. Bai Yang needs a clock that can measure time. When the time capsule is dug out from the ground and the clock sees the light of day again, it can tell people how much time has passed.
No watch can remain normally operational after being left in a time capsule for twenty years. The battery life of an electronic quartz watch is only five to ten years. Automatic mechanical watches do not require batteries and use a tourbillon to wind the mainspring, but they rely on external vibrations to provide energy. If left stationary for a long time, the hands will stop.
What should I do about this?
With the current advanced technology of mankind, it would only take a few minutes to create a timer that can work continuously for twenty years, but Bai Yang can't do it. He is just an ordinary high school student with limited ability and financial resources. His biggest reliance is the shopping websites Taobao and JD.com.
Bai Yang tried to search for "timer" on Taobao, but most of the results he got were ordinary electronic clocks. No matter how hard he tried, there was no way they could last for twenty years in a time capsule. Bai Yang's request sounded simple but was actually tricky to implement. He just needed a clock. He didn't need any fancy functions. He just needed to tell time. Listen, how simple is that? Isn't it the job of a clock to tell time?
But how long will it last?
At least twenty years.
This is not easy. Even the simplest functions are not easy to achieve perfection. Bai Yang really can't find a suitable target for a while.
He sat in a chair, staring at the screen of his mobile phone, lost in thought.
Twenty years is too long. In daily life, apart from the house we live in and the furniture in it, there are few things that are designed to last for twenty years.
"Twenty years..."
Bai Yang muttered with a frown on his face, playing with a coin in his hand.
It was a Morse code practice coin that Bai Yang had bought when he was practicing equal-amplitude reporting. It was about the same size as an ordinary one-yuan coin, but the front and back were engraved with Morse code and their corresponding letters. It looked golden, but it was actually made of stainless steel and copper-plated.
However, in the end, Bai Yang did not develop the ability to send radio messages. His father said that if he practiced blindly like this, he would definitely fail, and he would not be able to change the bad habits he had developed. Bai Yang did not believe it, and in the end he really failed. However, Bai Yang did not admit that it was his problem. He put the blame on the fact that the Changshu K4 electric key he bought on Xianyu was a pirated product.
"Twenty years? How can I survive these twenty years?"
This problem is not that complicated at first glance.
After careful consideration, I realized that it was extremely difficult.
When time itself becomes a roadblock standing in your way, you are facing the most powerful force in the world.
Since man-made creations are unreliable, we can only place our hopes on the physical laws of this world itself - changes in nature have always been measured in millions of years, and a mere twenty years is just the blink of an eye.
The first thing that came to Bai Yang’s mind was oxidation.
"Oxidation?"
Oxidation of iron, or oxidation of copper.
Iron oxidizes to ferric oxide, which is red in color, and copper oxidizes to cupric oxide, which is green in color.
If Bai Yang could take advantage of the color change caused by metal oxidation, for example, when BG4MSR dug out the time capsule, she would be able to see the metal time marker placed inside the capsule.
At this time, Bai Yang only needed to ask the other party about the color of the marker - this thing could not be faked, and the other party did not know the meaning of the color, so he could not lie - to find out whether the girl was telling the truth.
“Will this method work?”
“It won’t work.”
Bai Yang shook his head.
doesn't work.
The time capsule is strictly sealed and has no air or ventilation, so where does so much oxygen come from?
The second thing Bai Yang thought of was evaporation.
He thought of the legend that the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang was filled with mercury, and that there were rivers, lakes, and seas filled with mercury, and that ships could sail on them. In fact, with the terrifying density of mercury, anyone could float on the water as long as they were not afraid of death. The free evaporation rate of mercury was extremely slow. If he put 0.5 grams of mercury in the time capsule, it might take more than ten years for this amount of mercury to evaporate completely...
When BG4MSR opens the time capsule twenty years later, this is what she will see - high concentrations of mercury vapor.
This doesn’t work either.
Isn't this harming people?
Bai Yang scratched his head.
This doesn’t work, and that doesn’t work either. What should I do?
It was a pity that there was no one else present to discuss this issue with him. Two brains are definitely better than one. Bai Yang sat alone in a chair, thinking hard. It was a pity that he was a primate mammal rather than a large reptile, otherwise he would have a brain on his butt to help him think. In the silence, the small alarm clock on the desk was ticking. It was late at night and the rain seemed to still be falling outside the window.
That night Bai Yang lay in bed unable to sleep, his eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling in the dark, thinking about this question over and over in his mind.
He hoped to find a method, a method that could not be falsified, which would not be interfered with by any external force, and the results would not be tampered with by anyone. Only the iron laws of this world could control its changes, just like trees died and turned into coal, and rocks were eroded to form caves - let the world itself act as a timer. Only in this way could it be called ironclad evidence.
That's what we say, but it's easier said than done.
As a high school student, it was too difficult to find such a method. Bai Yang thought silently, maybe if she changed someone, someone older and more experienced, she would be able to come up with a method right away. After all, she was too young and had too little experience... Could she come up with a good idea if Yan Ge came? Could He Leqin come up with a good idea?
Mr. He has been knowledgeable and experienced since he was a child. He has been abroad more times than he has been out of the province. Maybe he can think of some good ideas?
Forget it, Bai Yang shook his head. He Leqin failed every physics exam, and his chemistry exam score was even lower than that of physics. He had to rely on Bai Yang and Yan Ge to help him with his daily homework. He was addicted to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Overwatch, Total War, Assassin’s Creed, Dark Souls, Euro Trucks, Microsoft Flight Simulator, and Half-Life all day long… Half-Life is such a bad translation, it can be said to be the first of the top ten worst Chinese game translations… Who translated it into Half-Life in the first place… What was the original name of Half-Life?
Bai Yang's thoughts were wandering aimlessly.
Half-Life's original name?
It seems like half...
half life?
Bai Yang was stunned and sat up in shock from his dying illness.
half life!
(End of this chapter)
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