143: Chapter 143 A Shocking New Theory

Liu Weiming was not the only one who was lost; the other experts present were as well. At this moment, they all looked at the rostrum with the same expression.

"What are everyone's thoughts after watching these two videos?"

Professor Qin Taifeng asked with a smile.

The experts fell silent for a moment, then a buzz of discussion arose, but no one answered.

Professor Qin Taifeng didn't mind. He coughed softly to quiet the room down, then continued, "It seems everyone is very confused, so let me explain."

"The first video shows our actual testing of the captured United States Electromagnetic Rifle. This video was originally top secret and not allowed to be made public, only to be archived as a restricted file, but..."

Professor Qin Taifeng paused slightly, organizing his words before saying, "The situation has changed. After consulting with higher-ups, the security classification of the video has been lowered. Given your clearance levels, you are now permitted to watch the declassified video."

Liu Weiming and the others frowned. Was calling everyone here with such fanfare just to watch a declassified video?

Yes, we admit we indeed drooled over the finished electromagnetic gun in the video, wishing we could take it back to our own research institutes and tear it apart, but just this alone didn't seem to warrant such a massive mobilization, did it?

Who didn't know that China had captured an Electromagnetic Rifle?

This was already an open secret; the only thing of security value was the specific parameters of the Electromagnetic Rifle.

"Regarding the specific details of this Electromagnetic Rifle, we will explain them to you in detail later, and we will provide the physical object for you to explore and research."

The middle-aged military man who had been sitting beside Professor Qin Taifeng without speaking finally spoke, and his words instantly startled all the experts present.

Since when had the military become so generous?

Weren't they clutching it to their chests like a treasure and refusing to lend it out even for a glance before?

What was going on today?

When things are out of the ordinary, there must be something fishy.

Could... the problem lie in the second video?

Liu Weiming pondered deeply, but he couldn't deduce much from just a video, so he could only make wild guesses.

"Next, let's talk about the second video..."

Professor Qin Taifeng's voice sank slightly as he said solemnly, "This is the real reason we invited you all here today."

Liu Weiming's heart sank.

"Regarding this matter, Senior Colonel Zheng Yi of the Defense Department was involved throughout the entire process, so she will first give you a brief explanation of how things transpired."

Zheng Yi?

Liu Weiming looked back and saw the female military officer next to his apprentice stand up and walk straight onto the rostrum.

"Experts,"

Zheng Yi scanned the room.

"Below, I will give a brief explanation of the second video for everyone."

"The... steel pipe you see in the video is named the K-001 Gauss Sniper Rifle. The prototype is for testing purposes only, and the designer is... Wang Shuo."

"According to our detailed investigation, Wang Shuo is a native-born Chinese citizen with no record of traveling abroad, no record of overseas contact, and no criminal record. His father is an aerospace worker in Gudu, Shaanxi, working in design, and his mother is unemployed at home."

"Wang Shuo just started his freshman year of college this year and established a company in W City called Frontier Technology Co., Ltd."

"Frontier Technology Co., Ltd.?"

An expert spoke up.

"Is that the Frontier Technology Co., Ltd. that caused quite a stir some time ago? The one that designed the Mark I System?"

Zheng Yi looked at the expert in surprise and nodded.

"Yes."

The expert nodded in realization and gestured for Zheng Yi to continue.

"What you see in the video was designed by this Wang Shuo. At this stage, only a barrel is available for testing, and other supporting equipment will take some time to arrive."

"According to our actual testing, even with just a single barrel, this prototype can reach a muzzle velocity of 850 meters per second at a power of 2000W, and its muzzle energy exceeds 4,500 Joules!"

"That's impossible!"

Before Zheng Yi could finish her sentence, the experts erupted into an uproar.

"Senior Colonel Zheng."

An elderly expert stood up and said in a deep voice, "It's not that we doubt you, but is there an issue with your data? 4,500 Joules? Are you sure?"

"We measured it ourselves, so naturally, we are sure."

"Could there be an issue with your equipment? Or perhaps the testing environment was too crude, and some important factor was overlooked?"

Liu Weiming also spoke up.

Honestly, hearing that the second video wasn't testing a new product from the United States, but rather China's own, made him somewhat excited.

The old fellows from the Defense Department usually kept these things under tight wraps, making it hard for others to even get a glimpse. Today, they were finally willing to share their technology and ideas.

And the purpose of gathering everyone was likely to brainstorm and better perfect the weapon system.

But the development of events was clearly somewhat beyond his expectations.

This thing wasn't even built by the old guys at the Defense Department and their apprentices, but came from an obscure little company. And from what Senior Colonel Zheng said, the designer seemed to be a college freshman?

Just started college... wouldn't that make him only eighteen years old?

An eighteen-year-old creating a semi-finished gun barrel, and the kinetic energy of this barrel actually exceeded the finished products they had spent over a decade researching—was that even possible?

The experts' minds held a negative answer.

4,500 Joules at a power of only 2000W. This almost exceeded the kinetic energy of most active-service rifles in the world. China's own active-service rifles only had a muzzle energy of around 2,600 Joules, and the United States' were slightly better, reaching around 3,200 Joules, but neither could match the data of this gun barrel.

As for the pitiful 1,000 Joules of muzzle energy from the Electromagnetic Rifle developed by the Defense Department itself, it was barely stronger than a pistol. Calling it a rifle was mostly just to save face for the Defense Department.

It was barely usable, but not practical.

"What kind of important factor could boost a gun barrel's kinetic energy to 4,500 Joules? If there is one, I certainly hope we get more of them."

Professor Qin Taifeng smiled and said, "You can rest assured about the accuracy of the test. It was measured using the laboratory's latest equipment, so there won't be any errors."

Liu Weiming frowned. Since Professor Qin had said so, there was definitely nothing wrong with it.

The accuracy was fine, the equipment was fine, and the venue was fine. Then there was only one possibility: this gun barrel... had something special about it!

"Professor Qin," Liu Weiming spoke up. "I wonder if we could conduct an actual test ourselves?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the other experts also came to their senses.

With the physical object right here, why were they wasting time blindly analyzing it? Wouldn't they know everything if they just tested it directly?

Professor Qin Taifeng wore a bitter smile and waved his hand. A guard took out a steel pipe from under the table and placed it on the table in front of the rostrum.

This was a silver-white seamless steel pipe, covered with mysterious patterns, with a hint of purplish-black in some areas, making it seem even more unusual.

Other than that, it was just an ordinary steel pipe made of an unknown material.

But at this moment, the eyes of all the experts present were drawn to this steel pipe.

"This is the gun barrel brought by Senior Colonel Zheng," Professor Qin Taifeng introduced. "The entire steel pipe is 725mm long, has an inner diameter of 5.56mm, and weighs about 2 kilograms."

"The barrel is compact overall and made of alloy. It has rifling inside, with a measured rifling pitch of 2.5mm."

"There are two types of projectiles brought back with it: one is a 5.56 caliber projectile made of alloy steel, and the other is a 5.56 caliber homogeneous steel projectile. Their weights are quite similar and won't affect the experimental results, so I won't go into detail."

The experts didn't need a detailed introduction right now. They carefully observed the steel pipe in front of them, trying to correlate the patterns on it with their own knowledge, attempting to figure out where the kinetic energy of up to 4,000 Joules came from.

After a moment, Liu Weiming rubbed his temples, feeling a bit of a headache coming on.

He actually couldn't see at all how this thing could unleash such massive energy. There wasn't even an electromagnetic coil; what did it rely on to generate magnetic force? Those decorative patterns?

Testing—they still had to hurry up and test it. Only testing could resolve their doubts.

Many of the experts could no longer contain themselves.

"Professor Qin, there should be a testing ground here, right? Why don't we head over to the testing ground and test it together?"

Professor Qin Taifeng let out another bitter smile.

"Everyone, it can't be tested anymore."

"It can't be tested anymore? What does that mean?"

The experts turned their puzzled gazes toward the rostrum, and then looked back at the steel pipe on the table.

This thing couldn't be a fake, could it? Was it simply untestable?

"Actually, the reason we invited you all here today is to repair this steel pipe."

"Repair the steel pipe?"

Liu Weiming asked in confusion, "Professor Qin, what went wrong with this steel pipe?"

Zheng Yi also frowned as she looked at the rostrum. The orders she received were simply to briefly introduce the details of finding the steel pipe and to report face-to-face to her superiors; she hadn't had time to ask about the steel pipe itself in detail.

She turned her head and looked at Captain Yang Gang beside her.

Captain Yang Gang shook his head slightly, indicating he didn't know the specific situation either.

Zheng Yi's brow furrowed even deeper.

"It's my fault, everyone. During the testing process, this steel pipe..." Professor Qin Taifeng sighed, showing a look of shame. "Its coils were burned out."

Burned-out coils? Liu Weiming nodded slightly. This wasn't surprising. Sometimes, accidental negligence leading to excessive current could easily burn out a coil. This was a basic error in electromagnetism that everyone had made to some degree.

"So... those purplish-black marks are..."

"Those are scorch marks," Professor Qin Taifeng said, keeping a straight face.

Everyone was stunned.

To think they thought it was some mysterious color scheme; turned out it was just scorched?

But if the coils were burned out, they could just wind them back on. Why go to such trouble to have them repair it?

"Professor Qin, you could have just ordered your researchers to handle such a small matter. Why call us here?"

Looking at everyone's puzzled expressions, Professor Qin Taifeng felt somewhat helpless. If only it were that simple. If they hadn't tried everything they could and made no progress with the repairs, how could they have reported it to the military region and used such measures to gather experts for discussion?

Recalling the situation when they tried to repair the steel pipe, Professor Qin Taifeng couldn't help but smile bitterly.

He stepped down from the rostrum and walked to the table where the steel pipe was placed.

"Everyone, take a look for yourselves first."

As he spoke, he made a welcoming gesture.

The experts, who had long been eager, stood up one after another, walked forward, and gathered around the table.

An expert picked up the steel pipe from the table, examined it carefully, and then, with his eyes darkening slightly, passed the steel pipe to the next person.

And so it went.

After looking at it, every expert lost their relaxed expression and fell into deep thought.

Until it was passed to Liu Weiming.

Liu Weiming gently weighed the steel pipe in his hand and nodded slightly. If nothing else, this weight was much lighter than other steel pipes of the same volume. He wondered what alloy it was made of.

He continued to observe.

The rifling was bright and smooth, indicating excellent machining craftsmanship and very precise control.

The patterns on the surface were not complex, but very neat and pleasing to the eye. It was just that the winding of the fine silver wire was somewhat rough; touching it carefully, it was actually a bit prickly.

"The patterns you see now are its electromagnetic drive units, similar to Gauss coils. There are eight in total, with independent input and output wires connected to a power source or a super energy storage device."

"Professor Qin, are you saying..." an expert asked in surprise, "these patterns *are* the coils?"

"Yes," Professor Qin Taifeng nodded gently.

"How is that possible?" The expert frowned. "This completely violates the principles of electromagnetism. Can a coil wound like this generate a magnetic field? Even if it can, with the wires mixed within the magnetic field, wouldn't electromagnetic induction consume the magnetic field's energy?"

The scholars nodded in agreement.

They had all noticed this flaw as well.

This winding method, even if it could generate a magnetic field, would consume a large amount of magnetic field energy due to the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction.

The source of electricity is based on the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction generated by wires cutting magnetic fields. Basically, anyone who has attended junior high school knows this, let alone experts in the field of electromagnetism like them.

If given a piece of paper, they could easily build a mathematical model to calculate the basic consumption of electromagnetic induction.

A thing like this, generating 4,000 Joules of kinetic energy?

What kind of academic joke is this!

"It indeed defies common sense," Professor Qin Taifeng nodded. "But what if it is based on a more advanced theory of electromagnetism?"

"What do you mean by that, Professor Qin?"

Liu Weiming asked.

"This is just my speculation."

Professor Qin Taifeng pointed to several black marks on the steel pipe.

"We have carefully examined the damaged spots on the coils. They are basically all where the wires cross each other, while other parts are mostly intact. This indicates that when a large current passes through the wires, these few spots bear the heaviest load. In other words, the most energy accumulates in these places."

"Energy accumulated, yet it didn't overload under normal operating conditions. What does this indicate?"

"This shows that this energy did not accumulate here for too long; it was likely released in a thousandth of a second. However, this accumulation of energy over a thousandth of a second built up an electric field potential, which would drastically enhance the magnetic field strength."

Liu Weiming's eyes lit up, and he blurted out, "Magnetism generates electricity, and electricity generates magnetism, in an endless cycle. Not only does it not consume magnetic field energy, but it also creates a compounding effect on it!"

"Director Liu is right, that is exactly my thought."

Professor Qin Taifeng nodded.

"But how is this achieved?" Liu Weiming's eyes shone brightly. "There is absolutely nothing about this in existing electromagnetic theory."

"Since no one researched it before, there was naturally no theory, but now there is." Professor Qin Taifeng pointed to the steel pipe in front of him. "This is a product supported by the new electromagnetic theory."

A new theory in the field of electromagnetism! One that completely reinterpreted the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction!

All the experts showed a hint of longing. What kind of landscape would that be?

Just as the experts were deeply immersed in their own fields, unable to extricate themselves, an untimely voice rang out.

"If that's the case... Professor Qin..."

Liu Weiming let out a bitter smile. He now understood Professor Qin Taifeng's difficulty, and also why they had gone to such great lengths.

An electromagnetic weapon alone indeed didn't warrant this level of concern, but this was the future of the electromagnetic field! Once China mastered this, they would leave everyone else in the dust, standing uniquely at the top of the electromagnetic field, leaving the United States without even the right to eat their dust.

Liu Weiming pointed to the steel ring and asked the question that many professors wanted to ask.

"How did you burn out the coils, and how did you try to repair them?"