How simple ideas lead to scientific discoveries

Kako jednostavne ideje vode do naučnih otkrića? - Adam Sevidž (Adam Savage)

Translator: Jenny Zurawell

Prevodilac: Tijana Mihajlović Lektor: Mile Živković

One of the funny things about owning a brain

Jedna od zanimljivih stvari u vezi sa posedovanjem mozga je

is that you have no control over the things

da nemamo kontrolu nad onim što on prikuplja i čega se drži,

that it gathers and holds onto, the facts and the stories.

nad podacima i pričama.

And as you get older, it only gets worse.

Kako starite, to se samo pogoršava.

Things stick around for years sometimes

Stvari ponekad ostaju tu negde godinama

before you understand why you're interested in them,

pre nego što shvatite zašto vas interesuju,

before you understand their import to you.

pre nego što shvatite njihovu važnost po vas.

Here's three of mine.

Ovo su tri koje su meni važne.

When Richard Feynman was a young boy in Queens,

Kada je Ričard Fajnman bio mlad momak u Kvinsu

he went for a walk with his dad and his wagon and a ball.

otišao je u šetnju sa svojim ocem, kolicima i lopticom.

He noticed that when he pulled the wagon, the ball went to the back of the wagon.

Primetio je da se, kada povuče kolica,

loptica vraća nazad prema kolicima.

He asked his dad, "Why does the ball go to the back of the wagon?"

Kada je upitao oca:

„Zašto se lopta vraća prema kraju kolica?”,

And his dad said, "That's inertia."

otac mu je odgovorio: „To je inercija.”

He said, "What's inertia?" And his dad said, "Ah.

Upitao je: „Šta je inercija?”, a otac mu je odgovorio:

„Inercija je ime koje naučnici daju pojavi

Inertia is the name that scientists give

to the phenomenon of the ball going to the back of the wagon."

da se lopta vraća unazad u kolicima,

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

"But in truth, nobody really knows."

ali istina je da to niko zaista ne zna.”

Feynman went on to earn degrees

Fajnman je dobio nekoliko diploma

at MIT, Princeton, he solved the Challenger disaster,

na MIT, Prinstonu, rešio je katastrofu Čelendžer

he ended up winning the Nobel Prize in Physics

i na kraju dobio Nobelovu nagradu za fiziku

for his Feynman diagrams, describing the movement of subatomic particles.

za Fajnmanov dijagram koji objašnjava kretanje subatomskih čestica.

Zaslugu za to pripisuje upravo tom razgovoru sa ocem

And he credits that conversation with his father as giving him a sense

jer mu je dao osećaj

that the simplest questions could carry you out to the edge of human knowledge,

da najjednostavnija pitanja mogu da vas odvedu do ivica ljudskog znanja

and that that's where he wanted to play.

i da je upravo to mesto gde on želi da se igra.

And play he did.

I igrao se.

Eratosthenes was the third librarian at the great Library of Alexandria,

Eratosten je bio treći bibliotekar

u velikoj Aleksandrijskoj biblioteci

and he made many contributions to science.

i dao je brojne doprinose nauci,

But the one he is most remembered for

ali ono po čemu je ostao zapamćen

began in a letter that he received as the librarian,

počelo je pismom koje je primio kao bibliotekar

from the town of Swenet, which was south of Alexandria.

iz grada Svenet koji se nalazio južno od Aleksandrije.

The letter included this fact that stuck in Eratosthenes' mind,

Pismo je sadržalo činjenicu koja se zadržala u njegovom umu,

and the fact was that the writer said,

a ta činjenica bila je da je pisac rekao da je u podne

at noon on the solstice, when he looked down this deep well,

na ravnodnevnicu, kada je pogledao u duboki bunar

he could see his reflection at the bottom,

video sopstveni odraz,

and he could also see that his head was blocking the sun.

kao i da njegova glava blokira Sunce.

I should tell you -- the idea that Christopher Columbus

Sad, trebalo bi da naglasim - ideja da je Kristofer Kolumbo

otkrio da je zemlja okrugla je totalna glupost.

discovered that the world is spherical is total bull.

It's not true at all.

To uopšte nije istina.

In fact, everyone who was educated understood that the world was spherical

Svako ko je bio obrazovan razumeo je da je Zemlja okrugla

još od Aristotelovog doba, a Aristotel je to dokazao

since Aristotle's time.

Aristotle had proved it with a simple observation.

jednostavnim pomatranjem.

Primetio je da svaki put kada vidimo Zemljinu senku na Mesecu,

He noticed that every time you saw the Earth's shadow on the Moon,

ona je kružna,

it was circular,

a jednini oblik koji stalno pravi kružnu senku

and the only shape that constantly creates a circular shadow

je sfera - znači, Zemlja je okrugla.

is a sphere, Q.E.D. the Earth is round.

Međutim, niko nije znao koliko je velika

But nobody knew how big it was

until Eratosthenes got this letter with this fact.

sve dok Eratosten nije dobio pismo sa ovom činjenicom.

So he understood that the sun was directly above the city of Swenet,

Razumeo je da je Sunce direktno iznad Sveneta

because looking down a well, it was a straight line

zato sto je gledajući niz bunar video pravu liniju

all the way down the well, right past the guy's head up to the sun.

sve do dna bunara, pored njegove glave do Sunca.

Eratosthenes knew another fact.

Eratosten je znao jos jednu činjenicu -

He knew that a stick stuck in the ground in Alexandria

znao je da će štap zaboden u zemlju u Aleksandriji

at the same time and the same day, at noon,

u isto vreme i istog dana u podne,

the sun's zenith, on the solstice,

na Sunčev zenit, na ravnodnevnicu.

the sun cast a shadow that showed that it was 7.2 degrees off-axis.

Sunce će baciti senku koja će pokazati da je bio 7,2 stepena po osi.

If you know the circumference of a circle, and you have two points on it,

Sad, ako znate obim kruga

i imate dve tačke na njemu,

all you need to know is the distance between those two points,

sve što treba da znate je razmak izmedju te dve tačke

and you can extrapolate the circumference.

i možete da izvedete obim.

360 degrees divided by 7.2 equals 50.

Trista šezdeset stepeni podeljeno sa 7,2 je 50.

I know it's a little bit of a round number,

Znam da je to okrugao broj, a i mene čini malo sumnjičavim

and it makes me suspicious of this story too,

po pitanju ove priče,

but it's a good story, so we'll continue with it.

ali to je dobra priča, pa ćemo nastaviti sa njom.

He needed to know the distance between Swenet and Alexandria,

Trebalo mu je da zna udaljenost između Sveneta i Aleksandrije,

which is good because Eratosthenes was good at geography.

što je dobro jer je Eratosten bio dobar u geografiji.

In fact, he invented the word geography.

Zapravo, baš on je izmislio reč geografija.

(Laughter)

Put između Sveneta i Aleksandrije

The road between Swenet and Alexandria was a road of commerce,

bio je trgovačka ruta,

and commerce needed to know how long it took to get there.

a trgovcima je trebalo da znaju koliko dugo im treba do tamo;

It needed to know the exact distance, so he knew very precisely

bila im je potrebna tačna udaljenost, pa je on znao veoma precizno

that the distance between the two cities was 500 miles.

da je udaljenost između dva grada 800 kilometara.

Multiply that times 50, you get 25,000,

Pomnožite to sa 50 i dobijate 40 000,

što je unutar jednog procenta Zemljinog prečnika.

which is within one percent of the actual diameter of the Earth.

On je to uradio pre 2 200 godina,

He did this 2,200 years ago.

Now, we live in an age where

a mi živimo u vremenu

multi-billion-dollar pieces of machinery are looking for the Higgs boson.

u kom multimilionska mašinerija traži Higsov bozon.

We're discovering particles

Otkrivamo čestice koje mogu da putuju brže od svetlosti,

that may travel faster than the speed of light,

and all of these discoveries are made possible

a sve ove pronalaske omogućila je tehnologija

by technology that's been developed in the last few decades.

koja je otkrivena u prethodnih par decenija.

But for most of human history,

Ipak, tokom većeg dela ljudske istorije

we had to discover these things using our eyes and our ears and our minds.

morali smo da otkrivamo ovakve stvari koristeći oči, uši i umove.

Armand Fizeau was an experimental physicist in Paris.

Armand Fizo bio je eksperimentalni fizičar u Parizu.

His specialty was actually refining and confirming other people's results,

Njegova specijalnost je zapravo bila

da preradi i potvrdi rezultate drugih ljudi.

Ovo možda zvuči kao gubitak vremena,

and this might sound like a bit of an also-ran,

but in fact, this is the soul of science,

ali zapravo je to srž nauke

because there is no such thing as a fact that cannot be independently corroborated.

zato što ne postoji činjenica

koja ne može biti nezavisno potkrepljena činjenicama,

And he was familiar with Galileo's experiments

a njemu su bili poznati Galileovi eksperimenti

in trying to determine whether or not light had a speed.

dok je pokušavao da odredi da li svetlo ima brzinu.

Galileo had worked out this really wonderful experiment

Tako je Galileo završio ovaj sjajan eksperiment

where he and his assistant had a lamp, each one of them was holding a lamp.

u kom su on i njegov asistent imali lampu;

svaki je držao po lampu, a Galileo bi otvorio svoju lampu,

Galileo would open his lamp, and his assistant would open his.

a njegov asistent bi uradio isto

They got the timing down really good.

i dobro su podesili vreme.

They just knew their timing.

Jednostavno su znali vreme. Zatim bi stajali na dva vrha,

And then they stood at two hilltops,

two miles distant, and they did the same thing,

udaljeni tri kilometra i uradili bi istu stvar,

on the assumption from Galileo that if light had a discernible speed,

pod Galileovom pretpostavkom da će, ako svetlost ima uočljivu brzinu,

he'd notice a delay in the light coming back from his assistant's lamp.

primetiti zastoj kod vraćanja svetlosti iz lampe njegovog asistenta.

But light was too fast for Galileo.

Svetlost je, međutim, bila prebrza za Galilea.

He was off by several orders of magnitude when he assumed

Falilo mu je nekoliko redova veličina kada je pretpostavio

that light was roughly ten times as fast as the speed of sound.

da je svetlost okvirno 10 puta brža od zvuka.

Fizeau was aware of this experiment.

Fizo je bio upoznat sa ovim eksperimentom.

He lived in Paris, and he set up two experimental stations,

Živeo je u Parizu i napravio je dve eksperimentalne stanice,

roughly 5.5 miles distant, in Paris.

na udaljenosti od otprilike devet kilometara u Parizu.

And he solved this problem of Galileo's,

Rešio je ovaj Galileov problem,

and he did it with a really relatively trivial piece of equipment.

a to je uradio sa relativno trivijalnim komadom opreme.

He did it with one of these.

Učinio je to sa jednim od ovih.

I'm going to put away the clicker for a second

Otkloniću kliker na sekundu

because I want to engage your brains in this.

zato što želim da angažujete svoje umove.

So this is a toothed wheel.

Ovo je nazubljeni točak.

It's got a bunch of notches and it's got a bunch of teeth.

Ima gomilu udubljenja i zubaca.

This was Fizeau's solution to sending discrete pulses of light.

Ovo je Fizoovo rešenje za slanje direktnih pulseva svetlosti.

He put a beam behind one of these notches.

Postavio je zrak iza jednog od ovih udubljenja.

If I point a beam through this notch at a mirror,

Ako usmerite zrak kroz udubljenje prema ogledalu

five miles away, that beam is bouncing off the mirror

udaljenom 8 kilometara, zrak se odbija od ogledala

and coming back to me through this notch.

i vraća se ka meni kroz ovo udubljenje.

Međutim, nešto interesantno se dešava kada okrenemo brže točak.

But something interesting happens as he spins the wheel faster.

He notices that it seems like a door is starting to close

Primećuje da deluje kao da se vrata zatvaraju

on the light beam that's coming back to his eye.

na zraku koji se vraća u njegovo oko.

Why is that?

Zbog čega se to dešava?

It's because the pulse of light is not coming back

Zbog toga se što puls svetlosti

ne vraća kroz isto udubljenje. Zapravo udara u zubac,

through the same notch.

It's actually hitting a tooth.

And he spins the wheel fast enough and he fully occludes the light.

a on okreće točak dovoljno brzo

i potpuno zaklanja svetlost.

And then, based on the distance between the two stations

Zatim je, na osnovu udaljenosti između dve stanice,

and the speed of his wheel and the number of notches in the wheel,

brzine točka i broja udubljenja na točku,

he calculates the speed of light to within two percent of its actual value.

izračunao brzinu svetlosti

unutar dva procenta njene stvarne vrednosti,

a učinio je ovo 1849. godine.

And he does this in 1849.

This is what really gets me going about science.

To je ono što me tera da nastavim sa ovom naukom.

Whenever I'm having trouble understanding a concept,

Kad god imam problema sa razumevanjem koncepta,

I go back and I research the people that discovered that concept.

vratim se i istražim ljude koji su otkrili taj koncept.

Pogledam priču kako su ga oni razumeli.

I look at the story of how they came to understand it.

What happens when you look

Kada pogledate u ono o čemu su oni koji su ga otkrili razmišljali

at what the discoverers were thinking about

when they made their discoveries,

dok su ga otkrivali,

is you understand that they are not so different from us.

razumete da nisu mnogo drugačiji od nas samih.

We are all bags of meat and water. We all start with the same tools.

Mi smo vreće mesa i vode. Svi krećemo sa istim sredstvima.

I love the idea that different branches of science are called fields of study.

Sviđa mi se ideja da se različite grane nauke

nazivaju grane istraživanja.

Most people think of science as a closed, black box,

Većina ljudi vidi nauku kao zatvorenu, crnu kutiju,

when in fact it is an open field.

dok je ona zapravo otvoreno polje,

And we are all explorers.

a svi smo mi istraživači.

The people that made these discoveries just thought a little bit harder

Ljudi koji su došli do ovih otkrića samo su malo više razmišljali

about what they were looking at, and they were a little bit more curious.

o stvarima koje posmatraju i bili su za mrvicu radoznaliji,

And their curiosity changed the way people thought about the world,

a njihova radoznalost promenila je način na koji ljudi razmišljaju o svetu

and thus it changed the world.

i tako su promenili svet.

They changed the world, and so can you.

Oni su promenili svet, pa možete i vi.

Thank you.

Hvala vam.

(Applause)

(Aplauz)