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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science, I am Steve Mirsky, got a minute?
You are pulling the tape off the roll and it starts to tear, or you are moving wallpaper and it refuses to strip off in strips or in what may be the most infuriating case, literally1, you are trying to unwrap a CD or DVD and you are confronted with shards2 of plastic everywhere. Well, the universe has truly conspired3 against you. Because when it comes to tearing these layers, the laws of physics now show that that’s just the way it is. Physicists4 address the so-called wallpaper problem in the March 30th online edition of the journal Nature Materials. What happens is that when you tear things, you get triangles. Because of three properties of the adhesive5 materials being torn: the stiffness, the strength of the adhesion and how tough the material is to rip. When you pull on the strip, energy builds up where the tape or coating is still attached to the surface below. That energy can get released in two ways by unpeeling from the surface which you want, or by becoming narrower, ultimately making those annoying little triangles.
Thanks for the minute for Scientific American's 60-Second Science, I am Steve Mirsky.
1 literally | |
adv.照字面意义,逐字地;确实 | |
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2 shards | |
n.(玻璃、金属或其他硬物的)尖利的碎片( shard的名词复数 ) | |
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3 conspired | |
密谋( conspire的过去式和过去分词 ); 搞阴谋; (事件等)巧合; 共同导致 | |
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4 physicists | |
物理学家( physicist的名词复数 ) | |
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5 adhesive | |
n.粘合剂;adj.可粘着的,粘性的 | |
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