慢動作揭開折斷義大利麵的秘密 - 每天變聰明一點點 127：英語精讀講義

Looks good to me.

看起來不錯。

Nice.

很好。

Hey, it's me Destin.

嘿，我是 Destin。

Welcome back to Smarter Every Day.

歡迎回到《Smarter Every Day》。

So, I'm going to show you something today that's fascinating.

今天我要給你們看些有趣的東西。

If you take a normal piece of dry spaghetti,

如果你拿一根普通的乾義大利麵，

you can do this in your home,

你可以在家裡試一下，

and you bend it right up until the point it breaks. 片語搭配

把它一直彎曲直到折斷。

It doesn't do what you think it should. 文法

結果可能跟你想的不一樣。

It doesn't break into two pieces.

它不會斷成兩截。

It breaks into three.

而是斷成三截。

It happens almost every time.

幾乎每次都這樣。

You see that?

看到了嗎？

That broke out of the middle.

從中間斷開了。

Today on Smarter Every Day,

今天在《Smarter Every Day》，

we're going to wait till the kids finish their dinner,

我們要等孩子們吃完晚飯，

and then we're going to break out the Phantom V1610 and record this at a quarter million frames per second. 片語動詞

然後拿出 Phantom V1610，以每秒25萬幀的速度記錄這個過程。

And we're going to unravel the secret of why spaghetti shatters the way it does. 慣用語

我們將揭開義大利麵為什麼會這樣斷裂的秘密。

You're getting smarter every day.

你每天都在變聰明。

If you haven't already run to the kitchen, 文法

如果你還沒跑去廚房，

do that now.

現在就去吧。

Grab some spaghetti and goggle up cuz science is about to happen. 文法

拿點義大利麵，戴上護目鏡，因為科學即將發生。

One at a time,

一次一根，

grab a noodle on both ends and bend it until it breaks.

抓住麵條兩端，彎曲直到它折斷。

You'll notice that the majority of the noodles break into more than two pieces.

你會注意到大多數麵條都會斷成兩截以上。

Now,

現在，

you might not think this is a big deal, 表達脈絡

你可能覺得這沒什麼大不了的，

but it's a really big deal.

但這其實很不簡單。

You see, it's really easy to understand why bending a rod makes it break into two pieces. 文法

你看，要理解彎曲一根桿子為什麼會讓它斷成兩截很容易。

The bottom is in compression, 用詞

底部受壓，

and the top is in tension.

頂部受拉。

When the tension on the top exceeds the maximum allowable tensile stress, 用詞

當頂部的拉力超過最大容許拉應力時，

it rips it in half,

它就會從中間斷裂，

and you're left with only two pieces of the rod left. 片語搭配

然後你就只剩下兩截桿子了。

So, why is spaghetti different?

那麼，為什麼義大利麵不一樣呢？

Something else is happening here.

這裡肯定還有別的原因。

The simple act of snapping spaghetti has stumped brilliant scientists for years, 用詞

折斷義大利麵這個簡單的動作，多年來難倒了許多傑出的科學家，

including Richard Feynman,

包括 Richard Feynman，

who, as you might know,

你可能知道他，

was on the theoretical physics team during the Manhattan project and also won a Nobel Prize for physics in 1965. 文化背景

他曾在曼哈頓計劃中擔任理論物理團隊成員，並在1965年獲得了諾貝爾物理學獎。

Everyone accepts that Richard Feynman was a genius.

大家都承認 Richard Feynman 是個天才。

So, it's no surprise that his theory about why spaghetti snaps into multiple pieces makes a lot of sense. 片語搭配

所以，他關於義大利麵為什麼會斷成多截的理論很有道理也就不足為奇了。

If you tried it by now yourself,

如果你剛才自己試過了，

you know that when you snap it,

你就會知道，當你折斷它時，

you feel this little vibration in your fingers.

你能感覺到手指有輕微的震動。

He thought that this vibration,

他認為這種震動，

if it was significant enough, 文法

如果足夠強烈的話，

could excite the remaining spaghetti sufficiently so that it would cause a secondary fracture on down the rod.

可以充分激發剩下的義大利麵，從而導致桿子上的二次斷裂。

To test this theory, 表達脈絡

為了測試這個理論，

Feynman and a friend decided to snap spaghetti underwater

Feynman 和一個朋友決定在水下折斷義大利麵，

to dampen out this vibration. 片語動詞

來減弱這種震動。

They were surprised to find out that when they snapped it underwater,

他們驚訝地發現，當他們在水下折斷它時，

it still seemed to break into multiple pieces.

它似乎仍然斷成了多截。

So, here we are.

所以，這就是我們現在的處境。

If a smart dude like Richard Feynman can't figure this out,

如果像 Richard Feynman 這麼聰明的人都搞不懂，

what chance do we have? 語氣意圖

我們還有什麼機會？

So, we're going to figure this out in my kitchen.

所以，我們要在我的廚房裡弄清楚這個問題。

This is what we're doing.

我們是這樣做的。

My wife brought home all kinds of different pasta for me at my request. 片語搭配

我妻子應我的要求帶回了各種不同的義大利麵。

I've got them taken out here,

我把它們拿出來放在這裡，

and we're running an experiment with this high-speed camera.

我們要用這台高速攝影機做個實驗。

It's a Phantom V1610.

這是一台 Phantom V1610。

We have a lamp set up, 文法

我們架設了一盞燈，

and we're just going to sit and break pasta and observe.

我們就坐在這兒折斷麵條並進行觀察。

I looked all over the internet,

我查遍了整個網際網路，

and the fastest research imagery I could find was 4,000 frames per second. 文法

我能找到的最快的研究影像也就是每秒4000幀。

So, in order to further science, 文法

所以，為了推動科學發展，

we're going to start out at least 18,000 frames per second,

我們至少要從每秒18000幀開始，

which surely should tell us something, right?

這肯定能告訴我們點什麼，對吧？

Woah.

哇。

That was fast.

太快了。

Okay, I couldn't even tell which fracture happened first.

好吧，我甚至分辨不出哪次斷裂先發生。

We'll zoom it back in and go frame by frame. 片語搭配

我們把它放大，逐幀來看。

Yeah, it's way too fast.

是的，還是太快了。

Both fractures happen at what seems to be the same time. 文法

兩次斷裂似乎是在同一時間發生的。

Let's look at another piece that breaks up even more

我們來看看另一根斷得更多的麵條，

and see if it sheds some light into what's going on here. 慣用語

看看能不能啟發我們到底發生了什麼。

What?

什麼？

It's like all the fracture points are happening at the exact same time,

好像所有的斷裂點都在完全相同的時間發生，

which is crazy cuz we're well below a millisecond timescale here. 片語搭配

這太瘋狂了，因為這裡的時間尺度遠低於一毫秒。

I'm not really sure what the researchers were seeing at 4,000 frames per second,

我不太清楚研究人員在每秒4000幀時看到了什麼，

but I'm not seeing it.

反正我沒看出來。

So, let's bump this thing up to 40,000 frames per second, 片語動詞

所以，讓我們把速度調到每秒40000幀，

which is 10 times faster than any research paper I've read. 文法

這比我讀過的任何研究論文都要快10倍。

Hmm.

嗯。

Okay, so we're starting to learn something.

好了，我們開始有所發現了。

I can at least tell that the right side broke first,

我至少能看出右邊先斷，

but both still seemed to be happening within a 100 microseconds of each other,

但兩次斷裂似乎仍在彼此相隔不到100微秒內發生，

which is really, really fast.

這真的非常非常快。

Also, let's start to watch the rotation direction of the broken pieces.

另外，讓我們開始觀察斷片的旋轉方向。

Let's watch another one and see if vibration has anything to do with that second fracture. 片語搭配

讓我們再看一個，看看震動是否與第二次斷裂有關。

No.

不是。

In fact, it appears that the longer rods aren't even vibrating on the same timescale. 表達脈絡

事實上，較長的桿子似乎根本不在同一時間尺度上震動。

Here's something, though.

不過，有個發現。

If you look, the smaller broken pieces,

如果你注意看，較小的斷片，

when they start to rotate,

當它們開始旋轉時，

always seem to rotate away from the first fracture.

似乎總是向遠離第一次斷裂處旋轉。

The back, however, appears to be breaking downwards.

然而，後部似乎是向下斷裂的。

It's almost as if the spaghetti is trying to straighten itself out, 講解

簡直就像義大利麵試圖把自己變直，

but it can't overcome its own mass.

但它無法克服自身的質量。

Buckle your seat belt cuz we're going to a quarter million frames per second. 慣用語

繫好安全帶，因為我們要上到每秒25萬幀了。

Man,

哇哦，

we had to go way faster than I thought we would to get this answer, 文法

我們必須比我想像的快得多才能得到這個答案，

but there it is. 語氣意圖

但它就在這裡。

I mean, it's not vibration.

我是說，這不是震動。

It's the curvature of the spaghetti as it straightens out.

而是義大利麵變直時的曲率。

Think about it this way. 表達脈絡

這樣想。

The entire spaghetti rod is under torque, 用詞

整根義大利麵都承受著扭矩，

right?

對吧？

Because of this torque, it bends in a curve.

因為這種扭矩，它彎成了一條曲線。

And when a break occurs,

當斷裂發生時，

the side near the break is now free from torque.

靠近斷裂處的一側現在不再承受扭矩。

But there's still this counter torque built up in the rod. 片語動詞

但桿子裡仍然積聚著這種反扭矩。

So, it starts to straighten itself out from left to right,

所以，它開始從左向右把自己變直，

rotating up and straightening out along the way. 片語搭配

一路向上旋轉並變直。

Because the spaghetti on the left is already straightened out

因為左邊的義大利麵已經變直了，

and the spaghetti on the right is still curved,

而右邊的義大利麵仍然彎曲著，

the point where they meet is now even more curved,

它們相遇的點現在彎曲得更厲害了，

which causes the spaghetti to bend beyond the minimum failure radius.

這導致義大利麵彎曲超過了最小失效半徑。

This results in a fracture. 片語搭配

這就導致了斷裂。

It's like one side doesn't get the message fast enough. 慣用語

就像一側沒有足夠快地收到消息一樣。

If the whole rod were to release at one time, 文法

如果整根桿子能同時釋放能量，

it'd be fine, but it doesn't.

那就沒事，但事實並非如此。

It breaks itself apart along the way.

它在變直的過程中把自己弄斷了。

Every time you have a new break,

每次發生新的斷裂時，

the process starts all over again. 片語搭配

這個過程又會重新開始。

This physical phenomenon is called a cascading fracture. 用詞

這種物理現象叫做級聯斷裂。

Until recently, the math behind this phenomenon wasn't very well understood.

直到最近，人們對這種現象背後的數學原理還不是很了解。

But, I did find a really cool French research paper on the topic,

但是，我確實找到了一篇非常酷的關於這個話題的法國研究論文，

as well as a neat simulation created by some Norwegian petroleum engineers. 片語搭配

還有一些挪威石油工程師創建的精巧模擬。

To my knowledge, though, the video that we just watched gives more insight into this physical phenomenon 講解

不過據我所知，我們剛才看的那段影片比以前任何研究，

than anything else that's ever been done.

都能更深入地揭示這一物理現象。

We just did it at a quarter of a million frames per second,

我們剛剛以每秒25萬幀的速度拍下了它，

which is amazing.

這太神奇了。

So, there you go. 語氣意圖

所以，你看。

The secret of snapping spaghetti is not just a party trick. 表達脈絡

折斷義大利麵的秘密不僅僅是個派對魔術。

The next time you boil spaghetti,

下次你煮義大利麵時，

be careful because you are about to explore the very edge of scientific knowledge. 慣用語

要小心，因為你即將探索科學知識的最前沿。

So, thank you very much for watching this episode of Smarter Every Day.

所以，非常感謝收看本期《Smarter Every Day》。

If you would like to get a book that talks about all the things that Richard Feynman studied,

如果你想買一本講述 Richard Feynman 研究所做事情的書，

I recommend an Audible book called Surely You're Joking,

我推薦一本 Audible 有聲書叫《Surely You're Joking,

Mr. Feynman.

Mr. Feynman》。

I'm listening to it right now,

我現在就在聽，

and it's really good.

真的很好聽。

If you would like to support Smarter Every Day,

如果你想支持《Smarter Every Day》，

go to audible.com/smarter

請造訪 audible.com/smarter

and download Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman,

下載《Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman》，

and you would support Smarter Every Day,

這將支持《Smarter Every Day》，

and I would greatly appreciate that. 語氣意圖

我會非常感激。

So, thank you very much.

所以，非常感謝。

I'm Destin.

我是 Destin。

You're getting smarter every day.

你每天都在變聰明。

Have a good one. 片語搭配

祝你開心。

You ever heard of Richard Feynman?

你聽說過 Richard Feynman 嗎？

No.

沒有。

No idea. 語氣意圖

不知道。

No idea?

不知道？

I have no idea who he is,

我不知道他是誰，

but it sounds fine.

但聽起來不錯。

Well, he is.

嗯，他確實不錯。

He's a little different than daddy,

他和爸爸有點不同，

but he's a pretty smart awesome dude.

但他是個相當聰明的厲害傢伙。

Three.

三截。

At least four.

至少四截。

I hope this video earned your subscription.

我希望這個影片能贏得你的訂閱。

If not, just enjoy this confused fish.

如果沒有，那就欣賞一下這條困惑的魚吧。

Thanks.

謝謝。