大家好 我是史蒂芬·霍金
Hello. My name is Stephen Hawking.
一个物理学家 宇宙学家 有时还是个梦想家
Physicist,cosmologist,and something of a dreamer.
虽然我行动不便 也必须通过电脑发声
Although I can not move and I have to speak through a computer...
但我的思绪却在自♥由♥驰骋
In my mind,I am free.
得以探索关于宇宙的大哉问
Free to explore the most profound mysteries of the cosmos.
好比宇宙为何是这副模样
Such as: Why is the universe the way it is?
为何会遵守规则和定律运行
Why does it follow rules and laws?
为何会有秩序而非混沌一片
Why is there order instead of chaos?
穷究这些问题 就可解开最深的奥秘
Finding out leads us to the very deepest of secrets.
找出宇宙万物的核心准则
To the one principle that sit the heart of everything in the cosmos.
欢迎收看
Check it out.
史蒂芬霍金 大设计
第一集 宇宙之钥
从国际空间站 鸟瞰南极光
The Aurora Australis or Southern Lights seen from the International Space Station.
我投♥注♥一生的精力 想解释如此美妙的
I've devoted my life to the search for an explanation to such...
神秘现象
beautiful mysteries.
因为我认为 它有助于解开宇宙本身的奥秘
Because I believe it would lead us to the secrets of the universe itself.
这趟探索之旅要探索所谓的"大设计"
This is the search for one I call the Grand Design:
也就是宇宙之钥
The key to the cosmos.
好消息是 我们好像已经找到了
The good news is,I think we found it.
也许吧
Almost.
这趟旅程相当艰辛
Getting here has been quite a journey.
一切源于350年前的某一晚
It began one night 350 years ago...
地点在英国的剑桥小镇
In the small English town of Cambridge.
时间是1665年
The year was 1665.
当时死神在人间肆虐 英格兰受到黑死病的邪恶诅咒
Death stroke the land as England fell under the plagues,dark spell.
一个名叫牛顿的学生
A student called Isaac Newton,fled out...
逃离剑桥想躲避威胁
To escape the threat.
幸好他逃了出来 因为牛顿是很前卫的思想家
We fortunately got away,because Newton was a radical thinker...
勇于用全新的观点来观察宇宙
who dare to see the universe in a completely new way.
牛顿踏出探索大设计的第一步
Newton took the first steps in the search for the Grand Design
试图找出支配自然的神秘定律
by looking for the mysterious laws that govern nature.
他提出一些疑问 万物为何会移♥动♥或停止
He asked,"Why the things move?" "Why do they stop?"
最著名的疑问是 万物为何会掉落地面
and most famously: "Why do they fall to earth?"
你可能认为解答这么简单的问题 并不会改变世界
You might not think answer to such simple questions would change the world...
但世界确实因此而变了
But it did.
因为牛顿悟出 宇宙结构深处有股力量
Because Newton realize there was a force outwork deep within the fabrique of the universe...
会让所有物质彼此吸引 这就是重力
that makes all objects attract one another: the force of gravity.
不只是地球上有重力 整个宇宙都有
Gravity works not just on Earth but throughout the cosmos.
而其强度取决于两个基本条件
And its strength depends on just a couple of fundamental things:
物体的质量 以及它们之间的距离
The mass of the objects and their distance apart.
为找出答案 牛顿发明了全新的数学语言 称为
To find these answers,Newton invented a completely new mathematical language,called...
微积分
The calculus.
你不用明白其原理 但能有这种成就就已很了不起
You don't need to know how it works,but it wasn't bad...
对于一个23岁的年轻人来说
for a 23 year old.
全世界的科学家每天仍在运用微积分
Scientists all over the world still use it every day.
牛顿的成果让我们得以预测所有事物
Newton's work,made it possible to predict everything...
从行星绕行恒星的轨道
from the orbits of planets around the stars...
日食的精确时间
and the precise timing of eclipses...
到雨滴降落的轨迹
to the trajectories of raindrops.
当今理论物理学家 所做的研究和牛顿并无二致
Today,we theoretical physicists are still doing the same sort of things as Newton.
只是幸好我们不用担心黑死病
And thankfully we don't have to worry about the plague.
虽然研究看来复杂 其实却相当单纯
Although our work may seem complex,it's really quite simple.
我们纯粹希望能解开
We're trying to unravel the hidden mechanism...
支配万物的隐藏机制
that underlies everything.
而我们有此能力 是因为站在伟大科学家的肩上
We can only do it just because we stand on the shoulders of giants.
这些科学家一点一滴地发现
Scientists who piece by piece discovered what makes...
宇宙运行的奥秘
the universe take.
19世纪中期 我的另一位科学偶像
Amongst those giants was another of my scientific heroes:
他就是詹姆斯·克拉克·麦克斯韦
James Clerk Maxwell.
麦克斯韦对光非常痴迷
Maxwell was fascinated by light...
在1861年 让他发明了彩色照相术
which in 1861 led to him inventing color photography.
但这只是这名杰出人士的成就开端
But that was just the beginning of what this remarkable man achieved.
在他开始钻研一种全然不同的物理领域后
It was when he began to investigate a completely different round of physics...
物理学才彻底改变了
that everything changed.
就是一种奇特得近乎神奇的关联
This was the strange,almost magical connection...
出现在磁力和电力间的关联
between magnetism and electricity.
这一点也不复杂
There is nothing complicated about it.
拿一块磁铁在一段铁线附近移♥动♥
Move a magnet near a wire...
铁线上就会产生电流
and you will cause electricity to flow through the wire.
而在铁线上通电后 铁线就具备磁铁的作用
Put electricity through a wire,and it would act like a magnet...
能让指北针偏移
and deflect the compass.
那两者间究竟有何关联
So what connected them?
麦克斯韦的高见是 磁力和电力
Maxwell's big idea was that magnetism and electricity...
其实是一体两面
are actually two facets of the same thing:
是一种能量波 且同时具有电与磁的性质
a wave of energy that was part electrical part magnetical.
他将这种波命名为电磁波
He called them: electromagnetic waves.
但后来又有意外发现
But then came a surprise.
数学推导结果显示这种电磁波
The mathematics told him this electromagnetic waves...
速度极其之快 每秒达30万公里
travel at extraordinary speed: 186,000 miles per second.
这和已确定的光速完全相同
The exact same speed that had already been determined to be the speed of light.
这导出一个惊人的结论
This led to astounding conclusion:
光也是电磁波
Light is an electromagnetic wave,too.
麦克斯韦将电、磁和光相互关联
Maxwell connected electricity,magnetism,and light...
创出四组连续方程式
in a series of four equations...
我认为一项厥功甚伟的发现
that I consider to be one of the greatest discoveries...
在科学史上
in the history of science.
叫麦克斯韦定律的这四组方程式
The equations called Maxwell's laws...
支配范围极广 从南北极舞动的极光
govern everything from the auroras that dawn over the north and south poles...
到现代电机通讯科技
to the modern electrical and communications technology...
驱动着全球
that powers the planet.
现代世界几乎每一台机器
Virtually every machine in the modern world...
从电脑 发电厂到洗衣机
from the computer to a power station to a washing machine...
都根据麦克斯韦揭露的准则运作
works to the rules Maxwell reviewed.
电磁学可说照亮了全世界
Electromagnetism quite literally lights up our planet.
很适切地证明了这个人的伟大
A fitting testament to a great mind.
但光比麦克斯韦所理解的有趣得多
But light is much more interesting than is Maxwell himself realized.
虽然他不知情
Although he didn't know it,
但他其实发现了一条大设计的基本线索
he had actually uncovered one of the fundamental clues of the Grand Design.
这条线索就是光速本身
That clue is the speed of light itself.
19世纪后期
By the late nineteenth century it looked like...
宇宙的一些重大奥秘似乎都已一一解开
some of the great mysteries of the universe would be all wrapped up...
都因牛顿和麦克斯韦的重大发现而解开
thanks to the groundbreaking discoveries of Newton and Maxwell.
但后来有两名美国物理学家 又在无意间有了意外发现
But then two American physicists stumbled into a completely unexpected discovery.
艾伯特·迈克尔逊和爱德华·莫利研究
Albert Michelson and Edward Morley were investigating...
麦克斯韦的发现所代表的含义 也就是光以波的形式行进
the implications of Maxwell's revelation that light is a form of wave...
速度为每秒30万公里
traveling at 186,000 miles per second.
他们推想就像水波 是能量在水中行进所产生的波
They figured that just as water waves,a wave of energy traveling in water...
而声波是能量在空气中行进所产生的波
and sound waves,a wave of energy traveling through air...
因此光波一定也透过某个东西行进
so light waves must also travel through... something.
他们把这东西称为"光以太"
They called this "something": the luminiferous ether.
迈克尔逊和莫利提出宇宙
Michelson and Morley proposed that space...
包含太阳和地球间的宇宙
including the space between the sun and the earth...
全都充满这种神奇的以太
Was filled with this mysterious ether.
他们相信阳光一定是经由以太来
They believed that sunlight must travel through the ether...
到地球的
to reach earth.
而由于地球同样绕着太阳运转
Since the earth also move around the sun...
因此地球也一定在以太中运行
They must be traveling through this ether,too.
若真如此,这种移♥动♥就会造成所谓的"以太风"
If so,this movement would cause what they called an 'ether wind'...
以太风吹过地球的表面
to blow over the surface of our planet.
迈克尔孙和莫利认为 以太风在地球上侦测得到
Michelson and Morley believed this ether wind should be detectable here on Earth...
因此设计一项实验来测量其作用
and design an experiment to measure its effects.
他们的实验在狭窄的地下室进行
They ran their experiment in a crowded basement.
但为了解其原理
But to understand the principle behind it...
我想我们就请他们出来 到海滩上进行
I thought we get them out of the lab and stay out here on the beach.
由于地球不断绕着太阳运转
Since the earth is constantly orbiting the sun...
因此"以太风"就会随时存在
then the ether wind would be ever-present...
也因此会影响地球上的光速
and would effect the speed of light here,on earth.
若光束顺着以太风前进
If a beam of light was traveling with the ether wind behind them...
光的速度应当会比较快
the light should move faster.
但若光的行进方向正好相反
But if light was traveling in the exact opposite direction,