Electric Vocabulary

翻译人员: Yan Wu 校对人员: Yolanda Zhang

(音乐)

I'm going to try to shine a historical light on our language,

我想尝试回顾一下我们语言的历史，

and tell you a story about the electric vocabulary.

并告诉你们有关电学词汇的故事。

It all begins over 2,600 years ago.

一切都开始于2600多年以前。

An ancient Greek, called Thales of Miletus,

一位被称作“米利都的泰勒斯” （Thales of Miletus）的古希腊人，

is thought to be the first person to observe

被认为是第一个观察到

what we would today call electrical phenomena.

我们今天称做“电现象”的人。

He discovered that a piece of amber, when rubbed with fur,

他发现当琥珀被毛皮摩擦后，

could pick up small pieces of straw.

可以吸附稻草屑。

In Thales's language, amber was called "electron."

用泰勒斯的话来说，琥珀就叫做电子。

For a long time, that was pretty much all anybody knew about the subject.

很长一段时间， 这就是人们所了解的全部电学。

And nature had to wait around 2,200 years

在人们对琥珀的特性进行新的研究之前，

before any new investigations were made into amber's properties.

自然界一直等待了

大约2200年。

William Gilbert, a 17th-century English scientist,

一位十七世纪的英国科学家， 威廉·吉尔伯特（William Gilbert）

discovered that with a careful experimentation,

发现通过精心设计的实验，

a number of other materials

其它一些材质也能表现出 和琥珀相同的

could display the attractive properties of amber.

吸附性质。

He also found that they could attract objects besides straw.

他还发现这些材质能吸附 稻草以外的物质。

吉尔伯特依照希腊语中的琥珀来命名

Gilbert named these amberlike objects

after the Greek for amber.

这些具有琥珀性质的物质。

He called them "electrics."

他把它们叫做“带电体”。

About 40 years later, in nearby Norwich,

40年以后，在英国诺维奇附近，

Sir Thomas Browne carried out similar experiments.

托马斯·布朗爵士进行了类似的实验。

He didn't figure out anything different from William Gilbert,

他没有找到任何不同于 威廉·吉尔伯特的发现，

yet the way he described the experiments

但他描述实验的方式

coined the word we use all the time.

创建了我们今天的词汇。

The way he saw it, when you rub, say, a crystal with a cloth,

在布朗爵士看来，当你用布摩擦水晶，

it becomes an electric object.

水晶就变成了一个带电体。

And just as we speak of elastic objects,

就像我们说弹性体

and say they possess the property of elasticity,

都具有弹性的性质，

electric objects possess the property of electricity.

带电体都具有电的性质。

The 18th-century French physicist Charles Du Fay

18世纪法国的物理学家

was the next person to make an important new discovery.

查尔斯·杜费（Charles du Fay）是下一个 有着重要新发现的人。

He found that almost any object, except for metals and fluids,

他发现几乎所有的物质， 除了金属和液体，

could be turned electric

经过加热和摩擦，

after subjecting them to a combination of heating and rubbing.

都能成为带电体。

In addition, he found that when two electrics are place near each other,

另外，他发现当两个带电体彼此接近，

they sometimes attract, and sometimes repel.

它们有时互相吸引， 有时互相排斥。

With this extra knowledge,

基于这项额外的信息，

Du Fay found that there were two distinct groups of electrics.

杜费发现带电体 有两个截然不同的类别。

Any two objects from the same group will always repel,

任何两个来自相同类别的物质

总是互相排斥，

while a pair of one from each group will always attract.

而两个来自不同类别的物质

总是互相吸引。

Despite these new discoveries,

尽管有这些新发现，

Du Fay's descriptions of the physics are all lost to history.

杜费对物理的诠释还是被历史所遗忘了。

相反，一位富有魅力的 美国年轻人创建的词汇

Instead, it is the vocabulary of a charismatic young American

that we still remember and use to this day.

却被我们牢记并且沿用至今。

Benjamin Franklin heard of the work going on in Europe,

本杰明·富兰克林 (Benjamin Franklin) 听说了在欧洲进行的研究工作，

and started his own playful experiments.

并开始了自己的有趣实验。

He quickly learned how to make electric devices

他很快学会了如何制造在去电时

that would De-electrify by producing very large sparks.

产生大量火花的电子装置。

Keen on mischievous pranks,

富兰克林喜欢搞恶作剧，

Franklin would often shock his friends with these machines.

他经常用这些装置来吓唬他的朋友们。

As he built more effective devices,

在设计出了更高效能的装置后，

he likened the act of electrifying and De-electrifying

他把积电和去电作用

比喻成枪弹上膛和开火。

to charging and discharging weaponry.

没过多久，富兰克林和其他人就发现

It didn't take long for Franklin and others to realize

that it was possible to link these weapons of mischief together.

可以把武器和恶作剧联系在一起。

Franklin, continuing with the metaphor,

富兰克林继续打比方，

likened this grouping to cannons on a ship.

把这个组合比喻成军舰上的大炮。

The gun deck on a military vessel

军舰甲板上的大炮

fired their cannons simultaneously, in a battery.

可以几个炮筒同时开炮。

Similarly, this electric battery,

同样的，带电炮台

would discharge all at the same time,

也能够同时放电，

causing large sparks.

并产生巨大的火花。

This new technology raised an interesting question:

这项新技术引发了一个有趣的问题：

Was a lightning cloud just a large electrical battery?

闪电云是不是就是一个硕大的带电炮台？

Franklin's description of all this was as follows:

富兰克林的解释如下：

he supposed that there is a substance

他假设有一种常见的

he called the electrical fluid, that is common to all things.

被他称作“电流体“ （electrical fluid）的物质。

If, say, a person rubs a glass tube,

当一个人去摩擦一根玻璃试管，

this rubbing, or charging, causes a flow of this fluid,

这样的摩擦或充电， 引起了电流体的流动，

or an electrical current, to move from the person to the glass.

或者说是电流从人移动到了玻璃。

Both the person and the tube become electrics as a result.

这就导致人和试管都变成了“带电的”。

Normally, if the person was standing on the ground,

通常，如果人站在地上，

their electrical fluid would return to normal,

他们的电流体将会回归正常，

with an exchange from the common stock of the Earth,

这是与地球电场进行交换的结果，

as Franklin called it.

就像富兰克林所说的那样。

Standing on something like a wax block can cut off this supply.

站在类似蜡块的东西上

可以隔绝这样的流动。

富兰克林认为当一个物体带过量电流

Franklin said that an object with an excess of this fluid

was positively charged,

就是正电体，

and something lacking this fluid was negatively charged.

而电流过少的则为负电体。

When objects touch, or are near each other,

当物体接触或者互相靠近，

the electrical fluid can flow between them

电流可以在它们之间互相流动

until they reach a balance.

直到它们达到一个平衡。

The bigger the difference in the fluid between the two objects,

两个物体之间的电流差越大，

the larger the distance the fluid can jump,

电流可以跳跃的距离就越大，

causing sparks in the air.

从而导致在空中产生火花。

And, it is the material of the object

而物体的材质在充电过程中

that determines if it gains or loses electrical fluid

决定了电流体是增加

during charging.

还是减少。

These are Du Fay's two groups of electrics.

这些就是杜费的两个带电类别。

You might have heard the phrase:

你可能听说过“异性相吸，

"Opposite charges attract, like charges repel."

同性相斥”的说法。

That's why.

就是这个原因。

For the next 150 years,

在接下来的150年，

Franklin's theory was used to develop

富兰克林的理论被应用于发展

many more ideas and discoveries,

更多的理论和发现，

all using the vocabulary he invented.

这一切都沿用了他所创建的词汇，

This scientific inquiry brought forth technological advances

这项科学调查不仅带动了科技的进步，

and eventually, scientists were able to take a closer look

而且最终使科学家们能够深入研究

at the electric fluid itself.

电流体本身。

In 1897, J.J. Thomson, working in Cambridge, England,

1897年，在英国剑桥工作的 JJ·汤姆森（J. J. Thomson）

发现了电流体

discovered that the electrical fluid is actually made up of small particles

实际是由被物理学家 乔治·史东尼（George Stoney）

named by the physicist George Stoney as "electrons."

命名为电子（electrons）的

微小粒子组成。

And so we return to the ancient Greek word for amber,

于是我们回到了故事的开头，

where our story began.

古希腊文的琥珀。

However, there's an epilogue to this tale.

但是，这个故事还有后续。

It was discovered that these electrons flow

这些电子被发现实际是

in the opposite direction to what Franklin supposed.

按照富兰克林假设的 相反的方向流动。

Therefore, objects that are positively charged

也就是说，正电体

don't have an excess of electrical fluid,

并不携带过量电流，

they actually lack electrons.

而是缺少电子。

Yet, instead of relabeling everything the other way around,

与其对整个理论推倒重建，

people have decided to hold on to Franklin's vocabulary

出于常规和惯例的考虑，人们决定

as a matter of habit and convention.

还是保留富兰克林的词汇。

While acknowledging the discovery of electrons,

这种做法在肯定了电子的发现的同时，

they kept Franklin's flow of electrical fluid,

还保留了富兰克林的电子流动理论，

renaming it: conventional current.

将其重命名为“常规电流”。

The electron has become the salmon of electricity,

电子变成了电流三文鱼，

swimming upstream in a ghostly river of conventional current.

沿着常规电流这条深邃不羁的

河流逆流而上。

This can be, understandably, confusing for many people

许多不了解这些概念的由来的人

难免会感到困惑。

who aren't familiar with the history of these ideas.

因此我希望，

And so I hope,

with this short story about the electric vocabulary,

通过这个有关电学词汇的小故事，

you will be able to see

能够让你理解这些词汇的由来， 和有关这个课题的奇思妙想，

through the accident and whimsy of this subject

从而获得对电现象物理学的

and can gain a clearer understanding

of the physics of electrical phenomena.

一个清晰的认识。