Greetings, Mister Principal

Chapter 35: Electrolysis Experiment

When the first ray of sunlight in the morning entered the square of Luna Nova Magical Academy, Reiner had already gotten up, put on a clean and comfortable shirt, picked up the notes he had made recently, and was about to go to the laboratory.

From the tower where Reiner lived to the laboratory building, he had to go through the atrium. Several students have already gotten up early. Even if today was a day off, some aristocratic ladies with a good upbringing also upheld healthy habits. Some were practicing magic silently in a corner of the square, while others were holding books to go to the classroom to study.

The morning light flickered on the dew, and the coolness of the night had not faded. Reiner greeted the girls, but the aristocratic ladies were obviously still wary of Reiner; only one cheerful student greeted him. Without paying attention to these details, Reiner walked straight to the laboratory building.

There were many vacant classrooms. Reiner took the key given to him by Claire and went to one of the laboratories, took out the necessary experimental equipment from the cabinet, and began to assemble the experimental equipment.

The paper described the electrolysis experiment in detail. For Reiner, who had possessed apprentice-level magic energy, the biggest difficulty may be the arrangement of the electrolysis magic circle.

But Reiner naturally had a way.

Just after he assembled all the equipment, Professor Claire happened to come here with Sharon.

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

As for Sharon, Reiner thought it was necessary to cultivate her scientific spirit in advance, and by the way, to relieve her tiredness of rushing to paint in recent days, so Claire also brought her over.

"What experiment are you going to do?"

Claire looked at the sink full of water in a daze.

"Electrolysis."

Reiner replied, and then spread open the "Alchemy" on the paper by Cornwall Penzance, the Seventh-ring Mage.

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

Following Reiner's words, Claire and Sharon looked at the place he was pointing, but there was nothing but a basin of water.

"Is this some kind of solution? Or is it some kind of special liquid? But it feels like ordinary water in every way..."

Claire asked, but soon she understood Reiner's intentions.

"Uh, don't tell me, you mean, water?"

Hearing Claire's speech, Sharon also widened her eyes, looking at Sharon in disbelief.

Water, one of the four basic elements proposed by Master Hohenheim, represented life. In the field of ancient magic, magic was not even divided into Element, Alchemy, and some other systems, but was simply divided into Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth, those four major systems. And so far, water was considered indivisible.

In fact, at the beginning of the establishment of modern magic, mage tried various methods to break down water. They burned, frozen, and struck it many times, they succeeded in obtaining some substances from the water, but it was later proved that it was just some impurities. Until today, water has been regarded as the cornerstone of the world and was one of the four basic elements.

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

"But in the attempts of those people in the past, even if it is heated, the water will only turn into steam. Mages have exhausted various means over the past hundreds of years, but they still failed.

Claire argued. Emotionally, she felt that Reiner was talking nonsense, but after previous experiments, she was faintly expecting Reiner to succeed rationally. This ambivalence put her in a quandary.

"But they haven't used electricity."

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

"Why don't we make another bet, I kind of miss you in your maid costume, Professor Claire."

These words made Claire's cheeks flush, and she looked a little bit angry.

Sharon sighed helplessly as she watched the interaction between the two.

"Since there is no objection, I will talk about my thinking."

Reiner did not conduct experiments directly but proceeded step by step. On the one hand, he was also preparing for the future.

"First, is it reasonable to assume that water is a compound that can't be broken down because the elements that make up water are too reactive to react with other substances?"

"Uh, if water is indeed a compound, then that's fine."

Claire reluctantly said. Most of the elements discovered so far were metals that existed as simple substances in nature, and elements with particularly active properties were indeed rarely heard.

"Then, according to His Excellency Penzance's paper, the new element 'Kayla' obtained by electrolysis is an extremely active metal element that can even directly react with water."

Following the words, Reiner pointed out the paragraph about the nature of the new element "Kayla" in the thesis with his finger on "Alchemy". It must be said that this Cornwall Penzance was indeed a high-level mage. The experiment was quite comprehensive, and the nature of this element had been described almost perfectly.

What these high-level mages lacked was only some inspiration. In many cases, it was not that they couldn't think of it, but they haven't thought of it. If they were given a spark of inspiration, they could also create many modern theories without Reiner's hands.

Thinking back to the laboratory, the reaction between "Kayla" and water should be a kind of replacement reaction, in which the hydrogen in the water was replaced with "Kayla" replaced to produce hydroxide and hydrogen.

However, His Excellency Penzance overlooked one thing, that was, gas was generated during the reaction. This was normal, because according to the description, the reaction process was very violent, and it was easy to ignore the gas that was not originally expected.

In his thesis, he described the alkaline solution obtained by dissolving "Kayla" in water. This solution could precipitate a substance. In his opinion, this was a compound of water and "Kayla" rather than water that had been broken down into two parts.

"After reading this paper, I began to boldly assume that there are two types of water, at least one with active nature. If electrolysis is used, then these two substances can be obtained. So far, there should be no problem with my logic, right?"

Reiner asked. At this time Claire had more doubts in her eyes. This professor nodded silently without asking any questions.

"So, if in the experiment, the mass of water is reduced and other substances with unique properties are formed, it means that my hypothesis is valid. Water is not a basic element but a compound. If the opposite is true, it means that my hypothesis is not valid."

With that said, Reiner arranged the experimental equipment and pulled out two wires from the electrolysis magic circle, as the positive and negative electrodes, respectively, into the two test tubes filled with water and placed upside down in the sink.

"Get ready, let's start the experiment, Professor Claire."

Reiner gestured, causing Claire to slowly activate the electrolysis magic circle