Can ChatGPT Really Solve Real‑World Math Modeling? A Teacher’s Experiment

ChatGPT Arrives

ChatGPT is a technology for AI chatbots that uses natural language generation models to simulate human language and can be trained to learn new knowledge, aiming to provide a more natural and human‑like conversation experience.

It can be accessed at https://chat.openai.com/chat, but requires a foreign phone number and VPN for users in China.

The interface is simple, a dialog box where you ask and it answers.

It Solved a Mathematical Modeling Problem

The author gave students a modeling assignment: make a cup of milk tea to be as hot as possible after 20 minutes, comparing adding milk before or after the waiting period.

We want to make a cup of milk tea to be as hot as possible after 20 minutes. Option 1: add milk first, then wait 20 minutes. Option 2: add milk after 20 minutes. Which yields a higher temperature?

Students submitted answers generated by ChatGPT, including a solution based on Newton’s law of cooling and Python code (screenshots shown).

The author was impressed by the clear code and the use of physical modeling, but later noticed inconsistencies: the temperature mixing calculation was unrealistic, and changing the time from 20 to 30 minutes did not affect the result, which is unreasonable.

These observations reminded the author that ChatGPT can produce convincing yet sometimes inaccurate answers, so results must be verified.

Good Tool, Good Partner, Good Teacher

ChatGPT is still just a model, a conversational robot that can help explore many fields, but it is not infallible. It can be seen as a useful toy, a knowledgeable partner, or even a teacher, provided its answers are critically examined.

For Chinese users, a mirror site https://gpt.chatapi.art can be tried, though it may be unstable.

References:

[1] 秋天的一杯奶茶像初恋一样，说凉就凉 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/oQbrwXmwIjKwn4a2Q25U0A

[2] https://chat.openai.com/chat