宇宙时空之旅（2014）

Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey S01E10

Part 5 April 25, 2021, 12:41 p.m.

the aurora.
太阳释放出的带电粒子太阳风
Charged particles from the Sun, the solar wind,
无休止地轰击着地球
are constantly bombarding the Earth.
你可以把太阳风当成一种电流
You can think of the solar wind as a kind of electric current.
地球的磁场
Our planet's magnetic field
引导这股电流到南极和北极
channels that current towards the North and South Poles.
当它碰撞大气层时
When it hits our atmosphere,
空气中的氧气分子和氮气分子
the oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the air
就像巨大的日光灯一样发光
glow like giant fluorescent lightbulbs.
当法拉第致力于
When Faraday pursued
他最后也是影响最为深远的发现时
his last and most profound discovery,
他儿时的贫困
the poverty of his childhood
前所未有地阻碍着他
stymied him as it never had before.
他急需帮助
He needed help
一个与他出身截然不同的人帮助了他
and found it in one who had come from another world.
迈克尔·法拉第解决了
Michael Faraday had solved the mystery
困扰艾萨克·牛顿的谜团
that baffled Isaac Newton.
这就是太阳如何不与行星接触
This was how the Sun told the planets how to move
而使之移♥动♥
without touching them.
太阳的确以它的引力场
The Sun does touch the planets
接触到行星
with its gravitational field,
地球的引力场
and Earth's gravitational field
告诉苹果如何落地
tells the apples how to fall.
一切都是一场梦
All this is a dream.
不幸的是这是他的科学家同事
Unfortunately, that was the prevailing view
普遍认同的观点
among his fellow scientists.
法拉第痴人说梦
Faraday was dreaming.
他们对他的创造力崇敬有加
They admired his inventiveness
也十分敬佩他在实验领域的才华
and his genius for experimentation,
但是他们认为看不见的"力线"
but they regarded his invisible "Lines of force"
以及他关于光和引力的想法纯属臆造
and his ideas about light and gravity as hand-waving,
没有任何事实可以支持他的想法
meaning there was nothing solid to back it up.
有人公开嘲笑他的理论
Some openly ridiculed his theories.
他们需要看到他的理论
They needed to see his ideas expressed
以现代物理学的语言解释
in the language of modern physics,
即精确的数学方程
precise equations.
这个领域
This was the one area
法拉第因童年贫困
where Faraday's childhood poverty
缺少正式教育
and lack of formal education
阻碍他继续前进
actually held him back.
他给不出数学方程
He couldn't do the math.
法拉第最终遇到了他无法跨越的障碍
Faraday had finally hit a wall that he could not overcome.
这时 19世纪最伟大的
And then, the greatest theoretical physicist
理论物理学家出现了
of the 19th century came along.
詹姆斯·克拉克·麦克斯韦
James Clerk Maxwell
出生于富有而显赫的家族
was born into a world of wealth and privilege,
人到中年的父母对这个独生子溺爱有加
an only child of doting middle-aged parents.
在他20岁出头时他身为数学家
By his early 20s, he had made a name for himself
已经名声斐然
as a mathematician.
其他科学家一想到法拉第
While other scientists had come to think of Faraday
都觉得他是一个过时的历史遗老
as old-fashioned; a great figure of the past
跟物理学的未来没什么联♥系♥
but no part of the future of physics,
詹姆斯·克拉克·麦克斯韦知道并非如此
James Clerk Maxwell knew better.
他开始阅读
He began by reading everything
法拉第在电学领域的所有著作
Faraday had written on electricity.
他坚信法拉第所说的力场
He became convinced that Faraday's fields of force
是真实存在的他开始赋予它们
were real, and he set out to give them
精确的数学公式
a precise mathematical formulation.
《论法拉第力线》詹姆斯·克拉克·麦克斯韦
物理学中的数学方程是
An equation in physics is just a shorthand description
空间和时间中物理现象的精炼表述
of something that can be represented in space and time.
例如描述摆线的方程
For instance, the equation that describes the arc of a pendulum
说明它不可能摆动得比起始点高
shows that it can never swing higher than its initial height.
当麦克斯韦将法拉第的电磁学实验现象
When Maxwell translated Faraday's experimental observation
转换为数学方程时
on electromagnetic fields into equations,
他发现了非对称性
he discovered an asymmetry.
看到下方的那行了吗
See that bottom one?
它急切需要某些东西
It cries out for something else.
麦克斯韦是一位伟大的数学家
Great mathematician that he was,
他在其后加了一个单项用来平衡方程式
Maxwell added a single term to balance it.
方程式的这一调整将法拉第的静态磁场
This tweaking of the equation changed Faraday's static field
变为能以光速向外传播的波
into waves that spread outward at the speed of light.
没过多久人类就发现了用这些波
It wasn't long before we found a way to turn those waves...
传递信息的方法
into couriers for our messages.
你能看见我吗
Can you see me?
你能听见我吗
Can you hear me?
这就是根源
This is how.
这项技术改写了人类的文明
This technology has transformed human civilization
把世界从一个个拼接起来的城市
from a patchwork of cities,
小镇和村庄
towns and villages
变成一个信息互通的社会组织
into an intercommunicating organism...
信息以光速进行传播
linking us at light speed...
连接地球上的每一个人
to each other...
甚至宇宙
and to the cosmos.
"世界上的一切都有可能如此美好
"Nothing is too wonderful to be true,
"只要它符合自然规律" 法拉第
"if it be consistent with the laws of nature."