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.
在密蘇里州長大 他們會帶我們去樹林裡面 給你地圖和指南針 然後你必須找到回家的路 如果沒有指南針 你甚至連地圖都看不懂 這就是我為什麼在這裡告訴你 指南針很重要
[Small thing.]
【小想法】
[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.
簡單來說,指南針 就是一塊被磁化的金屬 所以它會指向地球的磁極 我們通常會先想到袖珍型的指南針 看上去像一塊手錶,對吧 你可以把它拿在手裡 然後看裡面的指針轉來轉去 直到你找到北邊
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.
對物理學家而言,磁力仍然很神祕 但我們確定指南針能用的原因是 地球就是一個巨大的磁鐵 當使用指南針時 你和地球的中心連結在了一起 地球就像是一個旋轉的鐵水球 透過旋轉創造出磁場 就像一個桌面磁鐵小玩具 它有南極和北極 於是我們可以找到向北方的路
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.
最早已知的指南針出現在 中國大約公元前 200 年 他們挖掘出一些具有天然磁性的金屬 然後他們將這種磁性金屬 製成一個像勺子一樣的物件 放在一個銅盤上面 然後勺柄就會指向北邊 它似乎一直主要被用來看風水 可以找出讓能量在住所中 流動的最佳方式 水手可能是早期開始使用 隨身指南針的人
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.
因為無論太陽在哪裡 無論星象如何 他們總能找到北邊
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.
很多年之後,歐洲人 發明了羅經玫瑰圖 基本上它可以展示東南西北 它還可以讓人們創造新的方向 比如西北、東南等等 這是第一次人們知道他們在往哪裡走 這意義重大
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.
同時,我認為這也是 歐洲科學復甦的一部分 通常稱為「文藝復興時期」 人們發明了很多新的工具 從望遠鏡到顯微鏡
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.
地圖也因為指南針變得更有用 因為你可以知道什麼方向是指哪裡 你可以知道很多細節 它還改變了人類和這個世界的關係 有指南針和地圖就像是超能力 沒有指南針 我們認為是世界歷史的一切都不會發生 比如,在探索時期,麥哲倫環遊世界 即使我們知道地球是圓的
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.
指南針最終被嵌入到其他的工具中 因為它太有用處了 你可以把它安裝在多功能工具上 你也可以把它安裝在你的手機上 到處都有指南針 因為這就是我們 在地球表面找到路的方法 你可以出去探索 找到下一個山峰 和下一個地平線的背後有什麼 你還也可以放心地找到回家的路