The science of macaroni salad: What's in a mixture? - Josh Kurz

通心粉沙拉的科學：混合物裡有什麼？─ 喬許·克茲 （Josh Kurz）

Transcriber: Andrea McDonough Reviewer: Jessica Ruby

譯者: Regina Chu 審譯者: Geoff Chen

The world we live in is made of things,

我們生活的世界由各種「物品」組成

billions and billions of different things,

億萬復億萬不同的物品

like pickles and pianos and dump trucks and octopi.

像酸黃瓜

鋼琴

砂石車

章魚

即使這些物品看起來完全不同

And even though these things seem totally different,

they're all made of the same stuff, just combined in different ways.

它們都是由同樣的「東西」組成

只是以不同方式結合

To give you an idea of how this combining works,

為了讓你知道這結合的原理為何

let's take something apart.

我們來做拆解動作

Let's start with this bowl of macaroni salad.

就從這碗通心粉沙拉講起吧

If you were to reverse a recipe for macaroni salad,

假使你倒著看通心粉沙拉食譜

你會發現它是由

you'll see it's made by mixing together a bunch of ingredients,

一堆食材製成的

像是通心粉

like macaroni, mayo, vinegar, vegetables, and mustard.

美乃滋

醋

蔬菜

和芥末醬

This type of combining is called a mixture.

這種類型的結合稱作混合物

當你做一種混合物

When you make a mixture,

你是將兩種或兩種以上的物品結合

you're combining two or more things together

但沒有改變

without actually changing the chemical identity of those things.

任何物品的化學特性

Like mud, for example.

舉例來說，泥漿

The soil and water in mud haven't actually changed.

泥漿由土壤和水結合，本質並沒有改變

They're still soil and water,

它們還是土壤和水

你只是創造了土壤和水的混合物

you've just created a mixture of soil and water -- mud.

泥漿

It turns out that macaroni salad is actually a mixture of mixtures

事實上通心粉沙拉

是由許多混合物所組成的混合物

because many of the ingredients, like mayo and mustard,

因為裡面有許多食材

像是美乃滋和芥末醬

本身就已經是混合物

are already mixtures themselves,

which is nice for us because if we look closely,

這樣對我們正好

因為如果我們仔細看

我們會看到三種主要的混合物存在

we'll the see the three main types of mixtures that exist.

The size of the particles in a mixture determines the type of mixture.

混合物中的顆粒大小

決定了混合物的類型

On one end of the scale is a suspension, like our muddy water example.

在刻度的一端是懸浮液

就像剛剛舉的泥水的例子

You get this if you take big chunks of something

你得到懸浮液，如果你把大塊的物質

and mix it with something else so those chunks are just floating around.

和其他物質混合

所以這些大塊物質只是分散浮動

芥末醬就是個例子

Take runny mustard for example.

You'll see a bunch of little particles

你會看到一堆小顆粒

like mustard seeds, pepper, allspice, and minced shallots

像芥菜種子

胡椒

多香果

及剁碎的青蔥

all floating around in a liquid,

都飄浮在液體中

in this case vinegar with water.

在這裡也就是醋和水

This is called a suspension

這稱作懸浮液

because you've got particles of one thing suspended in another.

因為你得到的是一種物品的顆粒

懸浮在另一種物品裡

Now, on the other end of the spectrum is a solution.

現在，在範圍的另一端

是溶液

這種混合物內的顆粒是如此的小

The particles in this mixture are so small,

它們其實是分子

they are the actual molecules.

A solution is sort of like a suspension of molecules

溶液有點像分子懸浮液

其中的一種分子會與

where one type of molecule is blended or dissolved with another.

另一種混合或分解

Vinegar is an example of a solution

醋就是溶液的一個實例

其中的醋酸分子

where the molecules of acetic acid are blended with molecules of water.

與水分子混合

The chemical properties of the molecules haven't changed,

這些分子的化學性質不會改變

它們只是均勻的混在一起而已

they're just evenly mixed together now.

鹽水及氣泡飲料

Saltwater and carbonated soda are both examples of solutions

兩者都是溶液的例子

有其它的分子溶解在水中

where other molecules are dissolved in water.

The last type of mixture is called a colloid,

最後一種混合物稱為膠體

which is somewhere between a suspension and a solution.

介於懸浮液及溶液間

It's when you take two materials that don't dissolve

這是當你把兩種 原來不能混合的物質結合

且把顆粒弄得非常小

and you make the particles so small that they can't separate.

以至於不能分開

Mayo is what happens when you take oil and water,

美乃滋是

你把油及水

which don't mix,

這兩種不能混合之物

結合在一起後的產物

and you bind them together,

這通常需要另一種物質的幫助

usually with the help of another substance called an emulsifier.

稱為乳化劑

In the case of mayo, it's lecithin, found in eggs.

在美乃滋這個例子中 就是卵磷脂，存在於蛋內

所以現在你得到了由非常小的油滴

And now you are left with really small globs of oil

hanging out with really small droplets of water.

與非常小的水滴混合在一起的物品

Whipped cream, hairspray, Styrofoam, and Jello

鮮奶油

髮膠

保利龍

及果凍

are all other examples of colloids.

是膠體的其他例子

所以讓我們回到通心粉沙拉

So, let's get back to macaroni salad.

You've call colloids like mayo, suspensions like mustard,

你有了稱作膠體如美乃滋

懸浮液如芥末醬

and solutions like vinegar,

及溶液如醋

但你還有西洋芹

but you've also got celery, shallots, and all other vegetable chunks

青蔥

及其它切塊的蔬菜

that are also part of the salad.

也是這種沙拉的一部分

These aren't mixtures, really, but we can break them up,

這些不能稱作混合物

但我們能分解它們

就像一台電視可以被分解成

just like a TV can be broken up

into smaller and smaller complex component parts.

愈來愈小的複雜零件

在蔬菜這個例子中

In the case of vegetables, if you keep breaking things up,

如果你持續分解它們

最終會得到成千上萬的

they'll eventually end with thousands of complex organic molecules,

複雜的有機分子

things like ATP synthase

物品如三磷酸腺苷合酶

and RNA transcriptase

逆轉錄酶

and water.

及水

所以現在，一旦我們還原溶液共混狀態

So now, once we've unblended all the solutions,

unmixed all the colloids, separated all the suspensions

還原混合的膠體

分開所有的懸浮液

拆解我們所有的蔬菜

and taken apart all of our vegetables,

我們就會達到 物理性分解的極限

we've reached the end of what we can unmix physically.

What we're left with is a whole bunch of molecules,

我們所剩的是一大堆的分子

and these molecules remain chemically the same

而這些分子仍然保持相同的化學性質

無論它們是自己獨個存在

whether they are by themselves or thrown together in a salad.

或丟在一起拌成沙拉

如果你想要進一步分解這些傢伙

If you want to separate these guys even further,

we need to unmix things chemically,

我們必須在化學上分解物品

意思是我們必須開始打斷一些鍵結

which means we need to start breaking some bonds.