godfather of surgery

Chapter 1219 The Story of the Little Water Drop
When it was time for bedside monitoring, the nurse checked Adams' vital signs again. Apart from his high blood pressure and fast heart rate, he was still the same, and the doctor had to give him medication.

“Mr. Adams, you don’t need to worry at all. Leave the professional matters to the professionals.” Dr. Li didn’t want to get entangled with him any longer. If they continued, it would be endless. Solving one problem would lead to a new one, and so on. Perhaps this was Adams’s personality, a personality that was very suitable for studying mathematics.

Adams' wife kept giving him meaningful glances, telling him to stop nagging, as this was no longer normal doctor-patient communication but rather a form of harassment that was wasting the doctor's time.

"I just have some questions, Dr. Li. Could you arrange a private meeting between Professor Yang and me? I only need half an hour to understand my questions." Adams felt that Dr. Li, who was sitting in front of him, was just a minor figure and could not answer his questions. Only Professor Yang could answer them personally and help him understand them.

Half an hour? If he keeps asking like this, it might take more than half a day.

Dr. Li took this opportunity to slip away: "Professor Yang is very busy, I can only say I will try my best to arrange it."

Dr. Li then left the ward with the nurse. Before leaving, he reminded Adams and his wife that they could call the nurse at any time if they felt unwell.

Dr. Li breathed a sigh of relief, but after returning, he still told Yang Ping about Adams' request. Yang Ping thought about it and decided to take some time to see him and talk to him for half an hour to resolve his doubts. He was a mathematician, and because of his fixed mindset, he treated medical problems according to a purely theoretical way of thinking. This would definitely lead to an unsolvable dilemma, because medicine is a highly practical science, which is completely different from purely theoretical mathematics.

In the afternoon, Yang Ping took some time to go to the International Medical Center. Adams was very excited, and Yang Ping held a meeting with him in his ward.

"Please sit down!" Adams asked his wife to bring a chair, as he intended to clarify the issues with Yang Ping one by one.

Yang Ping sat down, with Dr. Li and Adams' wife standing beside him. Adams thought for a moment and then brought out all the questions he had asked Dr. Li that morning. He had prepared many questions, but he did not intend to reveal them all at once. Instead, he would ask them one by one.

After he finished speaking, Yang Ping thought for a moment and said, "Mr. Adams, you studied mathematics, so I think you should also have some knowledge of physics?"

Generally speaking, mathematicians are usually good at physics, while physicists are often very good at mathematics.

"Yes, if I didn't like math so much, I might have become a theoretical physicist. I like pure theory because it's so perfect. I don't like experiments because they always fall short of perfection," Adam said frankly.

"Okay! Before I answer your question, I want to ask you a question, is that alright? If you can answer my question, then naturally you will also understand the question you just raised." Yang Ping didn't want to answer him directly, he didn't want to be led by the nose by him, but rather he wanted to lead him by the nose.

Adams was of course happy to answer Yang Ping's question. He enjoyed asking questions and answering them; he found it a very pleasant experience.

"This is a very simple question that was once popular on our Chinese website, but it has also stumped many mathematicians and physicists."

Upon hearing that it was a popular problem that had stumped many mathematicians and physicists, Adams became extremely attentive: "Go ahead and ask, I'm ready."

His wife thoughtfully gave him a pencil and a notebook, as well as a file board so he could sit on the bed and write and calculate. Of course, there was also a calculator by his bedside.

"If a 0.05 milliliters drop of water falls from 5000 meters above the center of London and hits an adult on the head, could it penetrate the skull?" Yang Ping asked.

Adams quickly jotted down the question, looked at it, and then muttered something under his breath.

"This requires considering air resistance. Air density varies in different places and at different altitudes. What is the air density in London? What is the average thickness of a human hair, and how much cushioning effect does it provide? What is the thickness of a human skull? What is its density? What is its strength? What is its yield strength? What is its tensile strength? This requires a lot of data..."

As expected, this problem has stumped many mathematicians and physicists. It is not a simple problem, but an extremely complex one. It appears to be a simple approximation of free fall, but it involves many factors. To accurately calculate the impact force on the skull, it is also necessary to accurately calculate the skull's resistance to damage. Many mathematical and physical models need to be combined to solve the problem.

Adams had already filled several pages with the factors that needed to be considered, and slowly, his forehead became damp, the few sparse hairs on his forehead sticking tightly to the dampness.

"Don't rush, Mr. Adams, we have half an hour to talk. You can take your time to calculate. I'll wait for you." Yang Ping sat calmly in his chair.

Dr. Li, standing nearby, looked completely bewildered. A professor is a professor; with this move, he threw the problem back to Adams himself, so Adams would no longer focus on asking questions, but instead be busy solving them.

With the scratching of a pencil on his notebook, Adams would calculate a page, then the page would slip away, and he would start calculating again, repeating this many times.

Finally, he realized the difficulty of the problem; it couldn't be solved in half an hour. Besides mathematical and physical knowledge, he also needed medical knowledge, which he currently lacked. He had to log on to some websites to consult literature; otherwise, he couldn't continue analyzing the problem.

Adams blushed and said, "I'm sorry, Professor Yang, this problem is really too complicated. You yourself said it has stumped many mathematicians and physicists. I think I should be cautious about it. I can't solve it in half an hour. Of course, please believe me, I can definitely solve this problem. How about this, in order not to take up your time, you go back first, and I will call you after I solve this problem, okay?"

"Alright then, no rush, take your time calculating. I believe you can solve this problem." Yang Ping stood up and said goodbye.

After leaving the international medical center, Dr. Li said, "Isn't this simple? How can raindrops penetrate a person's skull on a rainy day?"

Yang Ping laughed, "You underestimate mathematicians. Their way of solving problems is different from yours. Many things in mathematics that we take for granted were solved by mathematicians who spent a lot of time and effort, some even taking thousands of years to solve." "Your trick really works. Otherwise, he would never stop, asking one question after another, all getting stuck on trivial details." Dr. Li was scared by his questions.
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The next morning, the director and head nurse of the International Medical Center took turns calling Yang Ping, saying that Adams hadn't slept all night and had been calculating some difficult problem.

Yang Ping knew he would work hard on the problem, but he didn't expect him to be so engrossed, actually staying up all night to solve it. His physical condition was already extremely poor, and staying up all night like this could easily cause problems. Moreover, it was during the experiment, and staying up all night would also interfere with the experimental results.

Yang Ping hurried over to the International Medical Center and heard Adams shouting from afar: "I've figured it out, quickly notify Professor Yang."

When Yang Ping arrived at the ward, there were A4 papers everywhere—on the bed, the sofa, and the floor. His wife had bought several stacks of A4 paper for him to use as drafts at a stationery store near the hospital in order to help him.

Adams sat on the floor, with thick sheets of draft paper on the coffee table. The curtains were drawn, and the morning sunlight streamed in, making his bloodshot eyes look very bright.

"Professor Yang, I've calculated it. Look, this is my model, these are the climate data for London, these are the air data, these are the data for human skulls, this is the UK, these are my calculation process, these are the variables, these are the constants, I've calculated it, this is the final result, this is the energy of the water droplet, this is the skull's load-bearing capacity, this is a comparison of the two..." Adams showed it to Yang Ping.

My goodness! Apart from a lot of discarded draft paper, his formal calculation process used more than a hundred sheets of A4 paper, and the entire calculation process was crystal clear.

His wife was probably used to his condition, so she didn't show any dislike for him. She just quietly helped him tidy up the scattered draft papers. The nurse helped him sit on the sofa and took his temperature and blood pressure.

Yang Ping didn't look closely at the solution process, and of course, he might not have understood it, but its neatness and organization were excellent. The English letters looked as if they were printed on, clear and beautiful. It was the calculation process of a mathematician.

“Can we sit down and talk now?” Adams said.

After the nurse left, Yang Ping sat down and said, "Actually, after you worked out this problem, you should understand that pure theory and problems often have different approaches than practical problems. For example, the final result of this problem is actually very simple: when it rains every day, even if you stand in the rain, the raindrops will not pierce your skull."

Adams thought about it and it seemed to make sense, but he didn't think about it that way. His approach was to use rigorous mathematical and physical methods to deduce the result, and the final result was the same: the water droplet would not penetrate the skull. Moreover, he also established a complex function, and the result was different under different circumstances.

For example, due to the influence of temperature, sometimes this drop of water will freeze into ice in the air, sometimes it will remain a drop of water, and sometimes it will evaporate completely in the air, but in the end, no matter what the case, it will not penetrate the skull.

"I want to tell you that medicine is a highly practical science, and it differs from mathematics. You can't solve mathematical problems with a medical approach, and similarly, you can't solve medical problems with purely mathematical methods. As for your questions and concerns, I understand. But as someone outside the field, all you need to know is that this laboratory method has already had successful cases, and that's enough."

"Take the water droplet problem from earlier, for example. I'm not a mathematician or a physicist. I just need to know that it won't break my skull and that I can walk in the rain. That's enough. I don't need to deduce it, and I can't deduce it like you do. My knowledge base can't support me doing that."

"On the other hand, regarding K therapy, you only need to know that it's the only way to save you. You don't need to figure out all the details, and your knowledge base isn't sufficient to support you in doing so. Do you understand what I mean?"

"In mathematics, I am a layman, and in medicine, you are a layman. Our respective knowledge bases cannot support us to understand each other deeply, but this does not prevent you from being an excellent mathematician, nor does it prevent me from being an excellent doctor."

Adams stared at Yang Ping with bloodshot eyes. After a moment, he nodded in agreement. Yes, he couldn't get caught up in this pointless entanglement.

"So what you need to do now is cooperate with me and get some rest. This will help you achieve the best treatment results. You always want to analyze things in depth, but that won't do you any good. On the contrary, it will cause you a lot of trouble, making your heart rate faster, your blood pressure higher, causing insomnia and anxiety. This will only interfere with the experimental data and weaken the treatment effect. We need you to relax and rest so that your body's immune system can get into its best state, understand?"

"If I were as anxious as you about whether the raindrops would hit me, I would be plagued by anxiety every day and wouldn't be able to work properly at all."

Yang Ping comforted him, believing that after a night of calculations, he should be able to understand some principles.

“I agree with you. You’re absolutely right. K treatment is like raindrops. All I need is for it to be my only hope. I must do my best to cooperate with the doctor and not get caught up in endless worries. This isn’t a math problem. I don’t need to worry about the details, and I don’t have the ability to understand them anyway. It requires a lot of medical knowledge.”

Finally, Adams figured it out.

“That’s right, so now, tidy up your room, get a good night’s sleep, and make up for lost sleep last night. I hope that as time goes by, you will become good news for us, just like the other volunteers.” Yang Ping stood up.

Adams gripped his hand tightly: "Thank you, Professor Yang. This is not a mathematical problem, it's a medical problem. You are the expert. I am just a layman, no different from an ordinary person. I don't need to get bogged down in the details. Please rest assured, I won't do it again."

"Yes, get some rest, time will bring us good news," Yang Ping encouraged him.

In fact, highly educated patients have the best compliance, while highly educated patients also have the worst compliance. Some people always use their limited medical knowledge to challenge a professional doctor, which is a naive behavior and actually very presumptuous.

Goodbye, Professor Yang, I will wait for good news.

Goodbye, we definitely will.

(End of this chapter)