Hallmark (Marked Series #3) | NCT Mark AU Fiction

Chapter Fourteen

Black Math: The Tenth Challenge

"Who published the book "The First Men in the Moon" and "War of the Worlds"?"

I've read these books. I just wasn't sure if I remember the author as well as I remember the content and I was lucky I got it right because I remember trying to make myself remember that War of the Worlds is by Wells because WWW. It's dumb but effective.

"How many kilograms weighed the Sputnik 2?"

Crap. I didn't get into this. I looked over to my side and saw Chaewon already writing down her answer. She was a monster.

+/- 500 kilograms. How in the name of Jesus would I know that?

"It is a microorganism is being transferred onto something else. The basic idea is that we are adding a small amount of the bacteria to the plate, where it will grow and multiply in the presence of nutrients in the dish. This term has also historically been related to vaccines. One of the first effective vaccines involved scratching a person's skin with a needle containing the cowpox virus. The result was an immunity to smallpox, which was caused by a virus closely related to cowpox. The needle was used to essentially transfer some of the virus into the patient, and thus, they were inoculated with the virus. What process does this go through?"

I've read this last night from a general science book. I just have to remember. But of course, if I got it, Chaewon also got it. It was Inoculation. Just from the question itself it was obvious. But for every obvious is a sure answer for her so I lost. Her score just slammed my score.

"Thank you Ms. Jin Chaewon. You truly are very smart." Chaewon waved good bye to the crowd but before I could even go home in agony, the emcee spoke again. "For the next category, the tenth challenge," My eyes widened. My head hurt immediately. I feel like all my studying for the whole week was useless. "Let's all welcome Ms. Kim Jihyun!"

I looked at where Mark and his friends were and they all looked as devastated as I was. At this point, I was giving up and I was already sad of the thought of losing Mark for some stupid challenge I was provoked by.

Mark wore a worried expression on his face and I'm pretty sure I was wearing the same thing. A man walked up to me and pushes me away to grab the chair I was sitting on and the table that I just used. I frowned at the man who ran down the stage with the chair and table. Rude.

"If there's Science, of course..." Great. "There should be a problem to solve. We all love solving don't we?"

I sighed and looked down.

I was surprised when a group of men went back up on stage to place a movable whiteboard. A lady hands me an eraser and three markers of different colors. I stared at those items in frustration. I've had enough of these challenges. My head was aching from not sleeping last night and now this. I need to eat.

"You will be given three hours," Three hours? The crowd gasped in surprise as well. "Three hours to solve this problem."

The screen flashes a problem. A baseball is popped straight up into the air and has a hang-time of 6.25 s. Determine the height to which the ball rises before it reaches its peak.

I immediately started analyzing the problem that was given and thankfully, it was something of my level. Something I can probably achieve and solve. Thank God this was a calculus problem or I'm screwed. This is easier than it looks so maybe this is a lot more easier to Jihyun or so help me God.

Given:

a = -9.8 m/s2

vf = 0 m/s

t = 3.13 s

Find:

d = ?

vf = vi + a*t

0 m/s = vi + (-9.8 m/s2)*(3.13 s)

0 m/s = vi - 30.7 m/s

vi = 30.7 m/s (30.674 m/s)

vf2 = vi2 + 2*a*d

(0 m/s)2 = (30.7 m/s)2 + 2*(-9.8 m/s2)*(d)

0 m2/s2 = (940 m2/s2) + (-19.6 m/s2)*d

-940 m2/s2 = (-19.6 m/s2)*d

(-940 m2/s2)/(-19.6 m/s2) = d

d = 48.0 m

After the equation, I was devastated. I was so drained. My brain is about to explode. I tried my best for the problem. I don't even know if I did it right. My answer didn't look that far from what Jihyun had but I still wasn't confident with my answer.

"Since when did you do math?"

"It's not math, it's physics." I answered Johnny. "It was a kinematic equation."

"So?"

Mark pulls me to his embrace and I felt much better. "You did well, princess. I'm proud of you."

I smiled and rested my head over his shoulder for good. This is the place I want to be right now – in the arms of a player I love.