万物简史 第162期:爱因斯坦的宇宙(5)

 　　What Michelson and Morley did, without actually intending to, was undermine a longstanding belief in something called the luminiferous ether,

　　迈克尔逊和莫雷所做的——实际上是在无意之中所做的——破坏了长期以来人们对一种所谓光以太的东西的信念。

　　a stable, invisible, weightless, frictionless¹, and unfortunately wholly imaginary medium that was thought to permeate² the universe.

　　那是一种稳定、看不见、没有重量、没有摩擦力、不幸又完全是想像出来的媒质。据认为，这种媒质充满宇宙。

　　Conceived by Descartes, embraced by Newton, and venerated³ by nearly everyone ever since,

　　以太是笛卡儿假设的，牛顿加以接受，之后差不多人人都对它怀有崇敬之情，

　　the ether held a position of absolute centrality in nineteenth-century physics as a way of explaining how light traveled across the emptiness of space.

　　在19世纪物理学中占有绝对的中心地位，用来解释为什么光能够在空荡荡的太空里传播。

　　It was especially needed in the 1800s because light and electromagnetism were now seen as waves, which is to say types of vibrations⁴.

　　它在19世纪初尤其必不可少，因为光和电磁在这时候被看成是波，也就是说某种振动。

　　物理学

　　Vibrations must occur in something; hence the need for, and lasting⁵ devotion to, an ether.

　　振动必须在什么东西里面才能发生，因此，就需要一种以太，并长期认为存在一种以太。

　　As late as 1909, the great British physicist⁶ J. J. Thomson was insisting:

　　直到1909年，伟大的英国物理学家J.J.汤姆森仍坚持说：

　　“The ether is not a fantastic creation of the speculative⁷ philosopher; it is as essential to us as the air we breathe.”

　　“以太不是哪位爱好思索的哲学家的凭空想像，它对我们来说就像我们呼吸的空气那样不可缺少。”

　　This more than four years after it was pretty incontestably established that it didn’t exist.

　　他说这番话4年多以后，就无可争议地确定以太并不存在。

　　People, in short, were really attached to the ether.

　　总而言之，人们确实离不开以太。

1 frictionless   

adj.没有摩擦力的

参考例句：

• The suspension of the mirrors must be very frictionless, but strongly damped. 反射镜的悬挂既要无摩擦，但又要有强阻尼。
• There is a frictionless hinge at C. C点是无摩擦铰。

2 permeate   

v.弥漫，遍布，散布；渗入，渗透

参考例句：

• Water will easily permeate a cotton dress.水很容易渗透棉布衣服。
• After a while it begins to permeate through your skin.过了一会，它会开始渗入你的皮肤。

3 venerated   

敬重（某人或某事物），崇敬( venerate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• My father venerated General Eisenhower. 我父亲十分敬仰艾森豪威尔将军。
• He used the sacraments and venerated the saints. 他行使圣事，崇拜圣人。 来自英汉非文学 - 文明史

4 vibrations   

n.摆动( vibration的名词复数 )；震动；感受；（偏离平衡位置的）一次性往复振动

参考例句：

• We could feel the vibrations from the trucks passing outside. 我们可以感到外面卡车经过时的颤动。
• I am drawn to that girl; I get good vibrations from her. 我被那女孩吸引住了，她使我产生良好的感觉。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

6 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

7 speculative   

adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的

参考例句：

• Much of our information is speculative.我们的许多信息是带推测性的。
• The report is highly speculative and should be ignored.那个报道推测的成分很大，不应理会。