Super God-Level Top Student

From the moment Xu Dajiang arrived at the School of Mathematics' recruitment station to inspect, to the time Liu Chenfeng brought food over, the short period, less than ten minutes long, indeed overturned Zhang Zhou's perception of the campus environment.

His impression of Qiao Ze was still stuck on the image of a Ph.D. who called himself "Wang," sneaking into the dormitory to ask Qiao Ze how to write a paper.

After receiving Qiao Ze's feedback, he was so embarrassed that he turned bright red and ran away.

For a long period, that Wang became a running joke between him and Gu Zhengliang.

Who would have thought that in just one short summer break, another Ph.D. student from the school not only shamelessly sought Qiao Ze's help but turned out to be a student mentored by the dean himself.

Even more excessive was the fact that the dean took it for granted that Qiao Ze would help keep an eye on his Ph.D. student, and everyone behaved as if this was perfectly normal.

Even the senior Ph.D. student didn't show the slightest embarrassment.

Plus, with Xu just now patiently explaining things to Qiao Ze and almost seeming subservient, even someone as slow as Zhang Zhou could sense that Qiao Ze's status in the college had risen, and that the rise was dramatic.

Zhang Zhou's curiosity was about to explode; he really wanted to know what Qiao Ze had done over the summer.

So, while Liu Chenfeng was busy setting up the food, Zhang Zhou immediately approached and asked, "Qiao, what were you busy with this summer?"

"Hmm?" Qiao Ze glanced at Zhang Zhou, thought for a moment, and replied, "Working on a project."

"Oh," Zhang Zhou nodded.

The answer was as flawlessly vague as usual, providing no clues.

Alright then, Zhang Zhou decided to drop the question and planned to ask Chen Yiwen later that night.

But he still felt like he should talk to Qiao Ze about something else...

So during the meal, he didn't stop talking: "Qiao Ze, have you heard about the differences between mathematics and physics students?"

"Are there differences?" Qiao Ze seemed somewhat interested.

This got Zhang Zhou excited: "Of course, there's a difference.

For instance, mathematics students memorize definitions and theorems, while physics students derive formulas and calculate integrals; math students care most about proofs, while physicists love approximations; mathematicians find physicists' formulas annoying because they don't care about the accuracy of results; physicists think mathematicians are just navel-gazing because they don't care about the proving process...

Haha."

Qiao Ze's mouth twitched slightly, not feigned this time, because Zhang Zhou's summary was indeed interesting, and he understood the point of Zhang Zhou's words.

He then went straight to the point and asked, "You also don't know why the resolution of satellites currently can't reach 1 millimeter?"

It was too blunt, making Zhang Zhou a bit red-faced: "Ahem, I have some guesses, but I'm not sure if they're correct. And it's not just me; I think Su Mucheng definitely doesn't know either."

Little did Zhang Zhou expect that, as soon as his words fell, Su Mucheng started to refute him.

"I know! Optical equipment has a resolution limit! The Starlink satellites are currently the closest to Earth, at about 120 kilometers. I'll even assume 100 kilometers, but that distance is dangerous; they could fall straight down. Even so, to achieve 1 millimeter resolution, the optical aperture would need to be over 70 meters.

And with such a large optical mirror, the mass alone is a problem; they can't operate long-term just 100 kilometers outside Earth; at least 300 kilometers would be safe. At that distance, the optical aperture of the satellite mirror would have to be nearly two hundred meters. The James Webb Space Telescope's total mirror diameter is only little over 6 meters!

If the Americans were that powerful, they would have already won the Star Wars. Right, Qiao?"

Qiao Ze nodded his head, Zhang Zhou blinked, and then his face visibly reddened.

Liu Chenfeng, sitting opposite and listening to the discussion, seemed to look at the somewhat chubby Zhang Zhou with a bit of pity, wanting to say something but eventually closed his mouth.

In the end, it seemed Qiao Ze felt Zhang Zhou was too embarrassed. After a moment of silence, he began, "Actually, it's not entirely because of these reasons. With too high a resolution and the same pixel size, the field of view becomes narrow.

Also, hypothetically high-resolution images require sufficient exposure time, and satellites 300 kilometers from Earth's surface often don't have enough time to expose. Additionally, atmospheric disturbances tend to blur high-resolution images, so it's even more difficult."

"Right, right, right, those were the things I was thinking of." Zhang Zhou immediately nodded fervently, feeling a bit more comfortable at heart.

At this moment, perhaps attracted by the discussion of a few individuals, a bespectacled male student from the Physics College approached: "Hehe, I didn't know your School of Mathematics understood so much about physics, too.

Speaking of which, the topic you're discussing—our college's Professor Chen is conducting research in that area, working on synthetic-aperture techniques for multiple satellites."

Qiao Ze tilted his head slightly, showing some curiosity as he said, "I'm not particularly skilled in optics, but as far as I remember, the principle of synthetic aperture involves using coherent superposition for time-domain analysis.

Coherence works best when the wavelength is consistent, but passive optical imaging is dealing with continuous wavelengths of natural light, which has poor coherence, right?

Moreover, time-domain analysis requires continuous measurement of light. CCDs and CMOS are not antennas; they can only obtain the total brightness information over a single exposure time. How can multiple satellites define phase information in a real-time continuous monitoring system when they aren't part of one?

Covering up for the ever-changing array spacing between satellites is another issue, right?"

"Er..." Qu Kezhi looked at Qiao Ze somewhat unexpectedly.

He had been sitting nearby and, during a lull, heard a few from the School of Mathematics discussing the differences between physics and mathematics and satellite imaging. Intrigued, he thought he'd join in to show off his advisor, who he admired.