Meet the principal

When the first ray of sunshine in the morning shone into the square of Crescent College, Reiner had already gotten up, put on a clean and comfortable shirt, picked up the notes he had made in the past few days, and prepared to go to the laboratory.

You have to go through the atrium from the high tower where Reiner lives to the experimental building. Several students have already gotten up early. Even though today is a rest day, some well-educated aristocratic ladies also adhere to healthy habits. Some are in the open square. One corner is practicing magic silently, while others are holding books and preparing to go to the classroom for self-study.

The morning light flickered on the dewdrops, and the coolness of the night had not faded away. Reiner greeted the girls beside him, but those noble ladies were obviously still wary of Reiner. Only one cheerful student returned the greeting. Reiner He didn't pay attention to these details and walked straight towards the laboratory building.

There were many vacant classrooms. Reiner took the key Claire gave him and went to one of the laboratories. He took out the necessary experimental equipment from the cabinet and began to assemble the equipment for the experiment.

The process of the electrolysis experiment is described in detail in the paper. For Reiner, who has apprentice-level magic power, the biggest difficulty may be the layout of the electrolysis array.

But of course Reiner has a way.

Just after he assembled all the equipment, Teacher Claire arrived here with Charlotte.

As a first-level mage, Claire was obviously able to support the operation of the electrolysis circle, so Reiner "invited" her to participate in the experiment.

As for Charlotte, Reiner believed that it was necessary to cultivate her scientific spirit in advance, and at the same time relieve her fatigue from the recent painting rush, so he also asked Claire to take her with him.

"What experiment are you going to do?"

Claire looked at the sink filled with water, a little confused.

"electrolysis."

Reiner replied, and then spread out "Alchemy" on the paper of the Seventh Ring Mage Cornwall Penzance.

"Electricity can decompose some elements with active properties. I designed this experiment to decompose a substance that people thought could not be decomposed in the past."

Following Reiner's words, Claire and Charlotte looked at the location he pointed to, but there was nothing there except a basin of water.

"Is this some kind of solution? It's some kind of special liquid, but no matter how you look at it, it feels like ordinary water..."

Claire asked, but soon she realized Reiner's intention.

"Uh, no, you mean, water?"

Hearing Claire's words, Charlotte also widened her eyes and looked at Reiner in disbelief.

Water, one of the four basic elements proposed by Master Hohenheim, represents life. In the field of ancient magic, magic is not even an element or a faction such as alchemy. Instead, it is simply divided into the four major factions of Feng, Shui, Fire, and Earth. From ancient times, To this day, water is considered indivisible.

In fact, since the beginning of modern magic, mages have tried various methods to decompose water. They burned, frozen, and struck. Many times, they succeeded in getting certain substances from water, but it was later proved that they were nothing. It is just an impurity. To this day, water is regarded as the cornerstone of the world and one of the four basic elements.

"I have said before that I will try to split water after getting enough preparation."

"But in the attempts of those people in the past, even if it was heated, the water would only turn into steam. The mages have used various methods over the past hundreds of years, but still have not succeeded."

Claire argued that she emotionally felt that Reiner was talking nonsense, but after previous experiments, she also vaguely expected Reiner to succeed intellectually. This contradictory mentality made her in a dilemma.

"But they didn't use thunder and lightning."

Reiner's words left Claire speechless, and then he added a little teasingly.

"How about we make another bet. I miss you in your maid outfit, Teacher Claire."

This sentence made Claire's cheeks turn red,

He turned away somewhat angrily.

Xia Luo looked at the interaction between the two and sighed helplessly.

"Since there is no objection, I will tell you my thoughts."

Reiner did not conduct the experiment directly, but carried out the experiment step by step. On the one hand, it also paved the way for the future.

"First of all, suppose that water is a compound. The reason why it cannot be decomposed is because the elements that make up water are too reactive and can easily react with other substances. Is this assumption reasonable?"

"Well, if water is indeed a compound, then that's not a problem."

Claire reluctantly said that most of the elements discovered so far are metals and other elements that already exist as simple substances in nature. Elements with particularly active properties are indeed rarely heard of.

"Then, according to Lord Penzance's paper, the new element 'Keira' obtained by electrolysis is an extremely active metallic element that can even react directly with water."

Continuing what he said before, Reiner used his finger to point out the passage in the paper about the properties of the new element "Keira" in "Alchemy". It must be said that this Cornwall Penzance is indeed a high-level mage. Experiments on properties are quite comprehensive and have almost perfectly described the properties of this element.

What these high-level mages lack is just some inspiration. In many cases, it’s not that they haven’t thought of it, but they just “haven’t thought of it yet.” If they are given a spark of thinking, then they can create a colorful modern world without Reiner having to do anything. theory.

Returning to the laboratory, the reaction between "Keira" and water should be a displacement reaction. "Keira" replaces the hydrogen in the water to generate hydroxide and hydrogen gas, at least on earth.

But Mr. Penzance ignored one thing, that is, gas was generated during the reaction. This is normal, because according to the description, the reaction process is very violent, and it is easy to ignore the gas that was not originally included in the plan.

In his paper, he described the alkaline solution obtained after "Keira" is dissolved in water. This solution can precipitate a substance. In his opinion, this is a compound of water and "Keira" rather than the water having been decomposed. became two parts.

"After reading this paper, I began to boldly hypothesize that water is composed of two kinds, at least one element with active properties. If electrolysis is used, then these two substances can be obtained. At this point, the logic should not be Problem?"

Reiner confirmed. At this time, Claire's eyes had more doubts. The teacher nodded silently without raising any questions.

"Then, if in the experiment, the mass of water decreases and other substances with unique properties are produced, then it means that my hypothesis is established. Water is not a basic element but a compound. If the opposite is true, it means that my hypothesis is not established."

As he spoke, Reiner arranged the experimental equipment, pulled out two wires from the electrolysis array as the positive and negative electrodes, and inserted them into the two test tubes filled with water and placed upside down in the sink.

"When you are ready, let's start the experiment, Teacher Claire."

Reiner signaled, causing Claire to slowly activate the electrolysis array.