Growing up in Missouri, they would kind of take us out into the woods, and they would give you a map, and they would give you a compass, and you had to find your way home. And without the compass, you can't even read the map. That's what I'm here to tell you. The compass is the key.
我在密苏里州长大, 大人会把我们带到树林里, 然后他们会给你一张地图, 他们会给你一个指南针, 然后你必须找到回家的路。 没有指南针的话, 你甚至连地图都看不明白。 这就是我今天想告诉你的事。 指南针是重要的钥匙。
[Small thing.]
【小事物】
[Big idea.]
【大智慧】
A compass is most simply a piece of metal that has been magnetized, so that it will turn towards the Earth's magnetic pole. The one that we all think of is the pocket compass. It looks like a watch, right? You can hold it in your hand and watch the little needle bounce around until you find north.
最简单的指南针 是一块被磁化的金属, 因而会指向地球的南北磁极。 我们脑海中都会浮现的 是口袋指南针。 它看上去像一块手表,对吧? 你可以把它拿在手里, 看上面的小指针兜兜转转, 直到你找到北极。
Magnetism is still a pretty mysterious force to physicists, but what we do know for sure is that a compass works because the Earth is this giant magnet. And when you use a compass, you are in touch with the very center of our planet, where this kind of roiling ball of molten iron is spinning around and creating a magnetic field. Just like a magnet you can play with on your tabletop, it has a north pole and a south pole, and we use compasses to find our way north because of that fact.
对于物理学家来说, 磁力仍是一种颇为神秘的力, 但我们明确知道的是, 指南针之所以能指示方向 是因为地球是一块巨大的磁铁。 而当你使用指南针时, 你接触到了我们星球的核心, 这个翻腾着的熔融铁球 正在旋转着制造出磁场。 就像你能在桌面上 摆弄的磁铁一样。 它有一个北极,一个南极, 因此,我们能用指南针判断方向。
The earliest known compass comes from about 200 BC in China. They figured out that some of the metal coming out of the ground was naturally magnetic, and so they fashioned this magnetized metal into this kind of ladle-looking thing, put it on a brass plate and then it would point north. It seems to have been primarily used to improve feng shui, so they could figure out what was the best way for energy to flow through their living spaces.
我们所知的最早的磁铁 来自公元前约 200 年的中国。 他们发现地里的某些矿石 具有天然磁性。 于是,他们将这磁化金属 琢成了勺子形状, 放在铜盘上, 它就会指向北方。 它似乎主要用来改善风水, 以便他们找到住宅里 能量流动的最佳方向。
Sailors were probably the early adopters of the more portable versions of it, because no matter where the sun was, no matter what the condition of the stars were, they would always be able to find north.
水手或许是早期使用 更便携的指南针的人, 因为无论太阳在哪里, 无论星星状况如何, 他们总能找到北方。
Now, much later, the Europeans are the ones who innovate and come up with the compass rose. It essentially laid out what north, south, east and west looked like, and it also enabled you to kind of create new directions, like northwest, southeast, what have you. And for the first time, they knew where they were going. That's kind of a big deal.
很久之后,欧洲人创造 发明了罗针图。 它本质上指示出了 北、南、东、西的方向, 同时,也能让你创造出新的方向, 比如西北、东南之类的。 他们第一次知悉了前进的方向。 这挺重要的。
But also, I think it was part of this general reinvigoration of European science. You might know it as the Renaissance. Lots of new tools were invented, from the telescope to the microscope.
但我也觉得,它是这次 欧洲科学的普遍振兴 的一部分。 你或许知道它叫做 “文艺复兴” 。 很多新工具在这时发明出来, 从望远镜到显微镜。
Maps got better because of compasses, right? Because then you start to understand which direction is which, you get a lot more detail, and that just kind of changes the human relationship to the world. The compass with a map is like a superpower. Everything that we think of as world history would not have taken place without the compass: the age of exploration, Magellan circumnavigating the globe, even the fact that we know it is a globe.
多亏指南针, 地图也变好了,对吧? 因为这样你能开始理解 地图上的方向, 能获得更多细节, 这可以说改变了 人类与世界的关系。 指南针配上地图 就像超能力一样。 如果没有指南针,那么 我们所知的全部世界历史 就都不会发生: 大航海时代,麦哲伦环球航行, 甚至发现地球是球形的这事实。
The compass ends up getting embedded in all these other tools, because it is such a functional object. So you might have it embedded in your multi-tool, you might have it embedded in your phone. The compass is everywhere, because it's literally how we find our way across the face of the Earth. So you can go off and explore, and find out what is over that next hill or that next horizon, but you can also reliably find your way home.
指南针最后被嵌入了 各种其它工具中, 因为它的功能如此重要。 你的多功能工具里可能有它, 你的手机里可能有它。 指南针无处不在, 因为它根本就是我们 在地球表面寻找方向的方式。 所以你可以尽情远行探索, 去看看那座山的尽头、 那条地平线的彼岸有什么, 但你也一定可以 踏实地找到回家的路。