万物简史 第66期:事物的测定(14)

 Bouguer and La Condamine thus had spent nearly a decade working toward a result they didn't wish to find only to learn now that they weren't even the first to find it. Listlessly, they completed their survey, which confirmed that the first French team was correct. Then, still not speaking, they returned to the coast and took separate ships home.

因此，布格和孔达米纳花了将近10年时间，得出了一个他们不希望得出的结果，而且发现这个结果还不是他们第一个得出的。他们没精打采地结束了测量工作，只是证明第一个法国小组是正确的。然后，他们依然默不作声地回到海边，分别乘船踏上了归途。　Something else conjectured¹ by Newton in the Principia was that a plumb² bob hung near a mountain would incline very slightly toward the mountain, affected³ by the mountain's gravitational mass as well as by the Earth's. This was more than a curious fact. If you measured the deflection accurately⁴ and worked out the mass of the mountain, you could calculate the universal gravitational constant—that is, the basic value of gravity, known as G—and along with it the mass of the Earth.

牛顿在《原理》中作的另一个推测是：一根挂在大山附近的铅锤线，会受到大山和地球引力质量的影响，稍稍向着大山倾斜。这个推测很有意思。要是你精确测量那个偏差，计算大山的质量，你可以算出万有引力的常数--即引力的基本值，叫做G--同时还可以算出地球的质量。

Bouguer and La Condamine had tried this on Peru's Mount Chimborazo, but had been defeated by both the technical difficulties and their own squabbling, and so the notion lay dormant⁵ for another thirty years until resurrected in England by Nevil Maskelyne, the astronomer⁶ royal. In Dava Sobel's popular book Longitude⁷, Maskelyne is presented as a ninny and villain⁸ for failing to appreciate the brilliance⁹ of the clockmaker John Harrison, and this may be so, but we are indebted to him in other ways not mentioned in her book, not least for his successful scheme to weigh the Earth. Maskelyne realized that the nub of the problem lay with finding a mountain of sufficiently¹⁰ regular shape to judge its mass.

布格和孔达米纳在秘鲁的钦博拉索山做过这种试验，但是没有成功，一方面是因为技术难度很大，一方面是因为他们内部吵得不可开交。因此，这件事被暂时搁置下来，30年后才在英国由皇家天文学家内维尔·马斯基林重新启动。达娃·索贝尔在她的畅销书《经线》中，把马斯基林说成是个傻瓜和坏蛋，不会欣赏钟匠约翰·哈里森的卓越才华，这话也许没错儿。但是，我们要在她书里没有提到的其他方面感激马斯基林，尤其要感激他制定了称地球质量的成功方案。马斯基林意识到，问题的关键在于找到一座形状规则的山，能够估测它的质量。

 

1 conjectured   

推测，猜测，猜想( conjecture的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The old peasant conjectured that it would be an unusually cold winter. 那老汉推测冬天将会异常地寒冷。
• The general conjectured that the enemy only had about five days' supply of food left. 将军推测敌人只剩下五天的粮食给养。

2 plumb   

adv.精确地，完全地；v.了解意义，测水深

参考例句：

• No one could plumb the mystery.没人能看破这秘密。
• It was unprofitable to plumb that sort of thing.这种事弄个水落石出没有什么好处。

3 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

4 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

5 dormant   

adj.暂停活动的；休眠的；潜伏的

参考例句：

• Many animals are in a dormant state during winter.在冬天许多动物都处于睡眠状态。
• This dormant volcano suddenly fired up.这座休眠火山突然爆发了。

6 astronomer   

n.天文学家

参考例句：

• A new star attracted the notice of the astronomer.新发现的一颗星引起了那位天文学家的注意。
• He is reputed to have been a good astronomer.他以一个优秀的天文学者闻名于世。

7 longitude   

n.经线，经度

参考例句：

• The city is at longitude 21°east.这个城市位于东经21度。
• He noted the latitude and longitude,then made a mark on the admiralty chart.他记下纬度和经度，然后在航海图上做了个标记。

8 villain   

n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因

参考例句：

• He was cast as the villain in the play.他在戏里扮演反面角色。
• The man who played the villain acted very well.扮演恶棍的那个男演员演得很好。

9 brilliance   

n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智

参考例句：

• I was totally amazed by the brilliance of her paintings.她的绘画才能令我惊歎不已。
• The gorgeous costume added to the brilliance of the dance.华丽的服装使舞蹈更加光彩夺目。

10 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。