第287集：E = mc²

本集《天文快报》由斯威本大学在线天文学项目赞助，这是全球最悠久的在线天文学学位课程。

This episode of Astronomy Cast is brought to you by Swinburne Astronomy Online, the world's longest running online astronomy degree program.

欲了解更多信息，请访问 astronomy.swin.edu.au。

Visit astronomy.swin.edu.au for more information.

《天文快报》第287期，2012年12月31日，星期一。

Astronomy Cast Episode two eighty seven from Monday, 12/31/2012.

E 等于 m c 平方。

E equals m c squared.

欢迎收听《天文快报》，这是我们每周基于事实的宇宙探索之旅，帮助您不仅了解我们知道了什么，更了解我们是如何知道的。

Welcome to Astronomy Cast, our weekly facts based journey through the cosmos where we help you understand not only what we know, but how we know what we know.

我的名字是弗雷泽·凯恩。

My name is Fraser Cain.

我是《今日宇宙》的出版人，和我一起的是盖伊博士。

I'm the publisher of Universe Today, and with me is Doctor.

帕梅拉·盖伊，南伊利诺伊大学埃伯斯维尔分校的教授。

Pamela Gay, a professor at Southern Illinois University, Ebersville.

嘿，帕梅拉。

Hey, Pamela.

你最近怎么样？

How are you doing?

我很好。

I'm doing well.

你呢，弗雷泽？

How are you doing, Fraser?

很好。

Good.

我们刚从一次精彩的邮轮旅行回来。

And we're back from our awesome cruise.

我们正在加勒比海，和大约90位天文播客的朋友在一起。

We are in The Caribbean with, I guess, about 90 of our astronomy cast friends.

这真是太棒了，没错。

And that was super Yes.

而且我们将会再次举办。

And and we are going to be repeating this.

敬请期待关于2014年1月夏威夷活动的消息。

Look forward for news about Hawaii in January 2014.

我正在着手建立一个相关网站。

I'm working on putting together a website for that.

今年的所有照片都会上传，明年的信息也会随后公布。

All the photos from this year will go up and information on next year will follow.

是的。

Yeah.

这真是一次非常美好的体验。

It was a really wonderful experience.

我必须说，非常感谢那些举办世界末日邮轮活动的人邀请我们登船并让我们参与。

I gotta say, I mean, big thanks to the folks who did the end of the world cruise for inviting us on board and and and letting us participate.

我们玩得非常开心，不仅因为能参观遗址和参加郊游，也因为能和天文播客的粉丝们共度时光。

We had a great time, you know, both with being able to sort of see the ruins and do the excursions, but also just to be able to spend time with with the Astronomy Cast fans.

这太棒了。

It was great.

你们安排了一个非常紧凑的日程，几乎每天晚上都在录制节目。

We you put together a really busy schedule where we were recording shows almost every night.

我们每天晚上都在举办活动、见面会、派对和演出。

We were or doing events every night, meet and greet party, doing shows.

我们每天晚上都在船尾观星。

We did stargazing every night out on the back of the boat.

我们和粉丝们一起吃了午餐和晚餐。

We we did lunches and dinners with the fans.

我们有机会真正和几乎每一位前来的人相处，和他们共进私人午餐和晚餐。

We were able to get a chance to to actually hang out with almost everybody who who came and and have sort of personal dinner and lunch with them.

所以这真是太棒了。

So it was it was great.

能认识大家真是太好了，当然也很高兴能和你以及大家的家人一起度过时光。

It was great to get to know everybody, and great to to of course to hang out with with you, and you know, the families got together.

那真是一段极其美好的时光，我迫不及待想再经历一次。

It was a really fantastic time and I was, I can't wait to do that again.

我必须向维多利亚、埃里克和凤凰致谢，感谢他们在我们去COBA那天帮了大忙，因为你们抛下我们，而他们帮我们照顾前后队列。

And I have to send out props to Victoria, Eric, and Phoenix for all of their help the day we went to COBA because you abandoned us and they helped us bring up the rear and bring up the front.

是的。

Yeah.

是的。

Yeah.

抛下你们了。

Abandoned you.

我不愿意让我的孩子们进入那样一场可怕的风暴。

I didn't want to send my children into that nightmare Galeforce storm.

不过，

But anyway,

你做出了正确的选择。

You made the right choice.

是啊，嗯，是啊。

Yeah, I Yeah.

我们经历了那场邪恶的童话骑行，你可以在未来我的博客上读到相关内容。

We had the fairy Ride of Evil that you can read about in the future on my blog.

是的，我们拍了一些很棒的照片。

Yeah, we've got some great pictures.

就像你说的，这是一次绝佳的实验机会，也很开心能和大家聚在一起。

And so like you said, you know, we're gonna, you know, it was a great chance to experiment and it was great to hang out with everybody.

缺点是，这并不是进行天文相关活动的理想平台，因为船在夜间移动，白天却停泊不动。

The downside was it wasn't the best platform for doing astronomy related stuff, because the boat moves at night, and then it stops during the day.

你身边充斥着严重的光污染。

You're carrying around horrible light pollution.

船在移动，所以无法架设望远镜。

The boat is moving, so you can't set up telescopes.

所以，你知道的，这并不是我们想开展的那种科学活动的理想场所。

So it was, you know, it wasn't a great place for the kind of science that we wanna do.

所以这就是为什么我认为我们要找一个在陆地上、靠近优质天文台的地方，我们会想办法解决这个问题。

So that's why I think we're gonna look for some place that's, you know, on land, that's near nice observatories, and and we'll we'll figure that out.

总之，还有更多消息会陆续公布，但我只是想给大家做个总结。

So anyway, more news coming, but just wanted to give everyone a wrap up.

那是一段非常棒的时光。

It was a fantastic time.

好的。

Okay.

太棒了。

Well, cool.

那我们就开始吧。

Well, let's get rolling then.

《天文小讲堂》这一集由Eighth Light公司赞助播出。

This episode of Astronomy Cast is brought to you by eighth Light Inc.

Eighth Light是一家敏捷软件开发公司。

Eighth Light is an agile software development company.

他们打造精美、耐用且可靠的应用程序。

They craft beautiful applications that are durable and reliable.

Eighth Light 提供灵活的软件领导力，并分享其专业知识，以提升您的项目。

Eighth Light provides disciplined software leadership on demand and shares its expertise to make your project better.

如需更多信息，请访问他们的网站：www.eighthlight.com。

For more information, visit them online at www.eighthlight.com.

请记住，网址是 www.thedigiteight,thlight.com。

Just remember, that's www.thedigiteight,thlight.com.

给他们发个消息吧。

Drop them a note.

Eighth Light，软件是他们的技艺。

Eighth Light, software is their craft.

想到这一点令人难以置信，但你家里的光和房子本身其实是同一回事。

So it's mind bending to think about this, but the light in your house and the house itself are really the same thing.

物质和能量是可以相互转化的。

Matter and energy are interchangeable.

这是阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦通过他著名的公式 E=mc² 所揭示的惊人发现。

This was the amazing revelation made by Albert Einstein with his famous formula E equals m c squared.

这就是太阳通过核聚变将氢转化为辐射的过程，也是核武器的巨大危险所在。

This is the process that the sun uses to turn hydrogen into radiation through fusion and the terrible danger from nuclear weapons.

所以我想我记得，当我终于理解这一点时，那是在高中十一年级的物理课上，呃，应该是十年级。

So I I think I can remember that being when when I sort of finally wrap my head around this, and we did it in physics class in like grade 11, think, grade 10.

当你被给出这个公式时，我们终于明白了这个公式到底意味着什么，我是说，真的能用来计算。

You know, when we were given that formula, and now we understood what that formula was about, I mean, actually to calculate.

你看，这是你的能量，你能从多少质量中产生能量；这是你的质量，你能释放多少能量——它们就是可以相互转化的。

You know, here's your energy, how much mass, you know, can you make, here's your mass, how much energy can you release, That they're just that they're interchangeable.

对我来说，这真的让我以一种全新的眼光看待整个世界。

That was for me, it really felt like I looked the whole world in a different way.

因为你一直认为这些东西是两种不同的东西，但现在它们不再是了。

Because you're so used to these things being two different things, and now they're not.

所以你能回到这个令人惊叹的点吗？实际上，我们先从这个方程式本身开始，谈谈这个方程到底在说什么，它在讨论什么？

So can you kind of go back to this just really amazing, well, actually, first, let's start with the equation itself and and sort of talk about like, what is this equation saying and what is it and what is it talking about?

从最根本的层面来说，它表达的是：如果你取任何物体，它都由一定量的物质组成。

Well, at at the most fundamental level, what it's saying is if you take something, it has a certain amount of material that makes it up.

而这些物质可以转化为能量。

And that material can get transformed into energy.

但作为一个整体，它的能量和质量之和是恒定的。

But the thing as a whole has a sum of energy and mass that is is a constant.

因此，一个物体的能量既包含在其静止质量中，也包含在其动能中。

So you have the energy of an object which is tied up in its rest mass and its kinetic motion.

而当它运动时，其物质总量并不会改变。

And then you have have the fact that if it's moving, its its matter amount doesn't change.

它的物质由有多少电子、多少质子决定，但它的动量、表现质量的能力会发生变化。

It's matter is dictated by how many electrons, how many protons does it have, but its momentum, its ability to act like mass changes.

这是一个非常令人困惑的概念，但最好的理解方式是：如果有两个观察者同时观察同一个事件，他们必须看到相同的结果。

And and this is a really confusing concept, but the best way to think about it is if you have two observers, both looking at the same event, they need to see the same thing.

由于时间会随着你运动速度的变化而变化，如果我观察一列接近光速行驶的火车，我将很难观测到它。

And since time changes based on how fast you're moving, if I'm watching a train moving at close to the speed of light, it would be very hard for me to watch it.

但忽略这一点，我会看到列车上的人的时间缓慢地接近停滞。

But ignoring that, I would see time for the people on that train slowly approach a stop.

这意味着，如果有人不小心掉了一个很好的锅，它会看起来非常缓慢地飘向那列高速行驶的列车底部。

This means that if someone were to drop a really nice pot, it would appear to very slowly drift towards the bottom of that very quickly moving train.

现在，一个缓慢移动的锅应该只是轻轻触地。

Now, a very slow moving pot should just sort of gently touch the ground.

但事实上，如果它足够重，当它撞到地面时，绝不会是轻柔的，而会碎成百万片。

But the reality is if it weighs enough when it touches the ground, there'll be no gentle about it and will shatter into a million pieces.

所以，为了在地面撞击时碎裂——在我眼中，这列高速列车上的人的时间流逝得极其缓慢——它的等效质量，即相对论质量，必须增加。

So it's it's equivalent mass, it's relativistic mass has to increase in order for it to shatter when it hits the ground in this, I perceive time moving very slowly for the folks on this fast moving train.

与此同时，对于列车上的人而言，这只是一个普通的锅，你一松手，它就快速下落，然后碎成百万片。

Now at the same time to the people on the train, it's a normal pot, you drop, the sucker moves fast, the thing shatters into a million pieces.

正是由于这种相对论质量的变化，我们双方才能观察到锅完全相同的碎裂过程。

And it's because of this this change in relativistic mass that we both are able to perceive the exact same shattering of a pot.

对。

Right.

好的。

Okay.

那么我们来看一下这个公式本身。

So then let's actually look at the formula itself.

我们一步一步地分解它。

So let's break it down bit by bit.

我们先从 e 开始。

So let's start with the e.

那么 e 是什么？

So what's e?

能量。

Energy.

能量。

Energy.

如何测量？

As measured?

它是某种东西在你从中提取足够多的粒子后能够做功的能力。

It's the ability of something to do work if you rest enough of the bits out of it.

通常它用什么来衡量？

And typically, it's measured in what?

焦耳？

Joules?

焦耳。

Joules.

兆焦。

Megajoules.

在这种情况下，是卡路里。

Know, this case, calories.

是的。

Yeah.

好的。

Okay.

对。

Right.

然后这就相等了。

And then that's equal.

那 m 呢？

And then m?

质量。

Mass.

这是以千克、克为单位的质量。

And that's the mass in kilograms, grams.

是的。

Yeah.

好的。

Okay.

c 呢？

C?

光速，单位是公里每秒。

Speed of light, kilometers per second.

是的。

Yeah.

或者用米每秒，取决于你选择使用哪个单位。

Or meters per second, depending on what you decide to use.

通常的单位是米每秒，质量用千克，能量用焦耳。

And the normal units are meters per second, mass in kilograms, energy in joules.

然后你把光速平方，这就变得离谱了。

And then you square the speed of light, and that's where it gets ridiculous.

对吧？

Right?

光速是多少来着？

It's the speed of light is already what?

每秒30万公里。

300,000 meters per second.

然后你把这个数字平方。

And then you square that number.

对吧？

Right?

然后你得到，你知道的，随便什么数。

And you get, you know, whatever.

嗯，它是每秒3亿米。

Well, it's it's 300,000,000 meters per second.

3亿，没错。

300 that's right.

每秒30万公里，所以你取每秒3亿米，然后平方，没错，这是一个很大的数字。

300,000 kilometers per So you take 300,000,000 meters per second, square the sucker, and yeah, that's a large number.

但有趣的是，如果你把方程反过来，把它看作一个比例，物体所蕴含的能量除以它的质量，总是等于光速的平方。

But what's neat about this is if you turn the equation around and you look at it as a ratio instead, the energy tied up in an object divided by its mass is always equal to the speed of light squared.

这还挺酷的。

And that's just kind of cool.

但我的意思是，当你想想看，比如我这里有一个漂亮的铁陨石。

But the but I mean, when you think about, you know, for example, I've got here a, you know, a nice little iron meteorite.

嘿，我也有一个那样的。

Hey, I've got one of those too.

我知道。

I know.

我们都有的。

We all do.

我们都有的。

We all do.

这是一个填充物

This is a fill

板子的东西。

plate thing.

这是一个填充板的东西。

This is a fill plate thing.

我们有填板陨石。

We have fill plate meteorites.

是的。

Yes.

是的。

Yes.

填板。

Fill plate.

如果他真的喜欢你，我们会送你一块铁陨石。

If he really likes you, we'll give you an iron meteorite.

所以你知道，比如我忘了，它大约有40克左右。

And so you know, like maybe I forget it's about 40 grams or so.

但我的意思是，这块物质中蕴含的能量足以为一座城市供电。

But I mean there is enough energy to power a city in this piece of matter.

短暂一段时间内，是的。

For a brief period of time, yes.

是的，我的意思是，我们周围所有物质中都蕴含着惊人的能量。

Yeah, I mean it's a phenomenal amount of energy that's locked up in all the matter around us.

事实上，我们周围的一切就像是等待释放能量的炸弹，只是被冻结了？

In fact, it's as if everything around us is just, you know, bombs waiting to Frozen go energy?

冻结的炸弹，你知道的。

Frozen, you know, bombs.

但关键在于如何释放这种能量。

But the trick is unlocking that energy.

这才是困难的部分。

That's the that's the hard part.

那么我们回到爱因斯坦吧。

So so let's go back to Einstein then.

所以，我的意思是，你已经稍微提到这一点了，对吧？就是相对论的概念。

So so, I mean, you already kind of led into it, right, which is the relativity concept.

那么，爱因斯坦究竟是如何提出这个想法的呢？

So so how did Einstein really come up with this idea?

有趣的是，他的论文最初并没有出现 E=mc²。

Well, so what what's interesting is is there was initially no e equals m c squared in his paper.

它只是论文旁的一句话，根据我对德文原文的剽窃式翻译（来自维基百科），这句话说：如果一个物体以辐射形式释放出能量 L，它的质量就会减少 L 除以 V 的平方。

It was just kind of this sentence off to the side that, according to the translation of the German that I stole ruthlessly from Wikipedia, it said, if a body gives off the energy L in the form of radiation, its mass diminishes by L over V squared.

这与过程中动量如何受到影响有关。

And and so this has to do with with just how the momentum is affected in the process.

这与动能守恒如何与一切联系在一起有关。

It has to do with the conservation of of kinetic energy tying into everything.

后来是马克斯·普朗克首次提出：一个系统最初的质等于其最初的能量除以 c 的平方。

And and it was only later that Max Planck was the one who wrote that the mass initially in a system is equal to the energy initially in a system divided by c squared.

你必须从质量的角度来理解这一点，而不是物质，因为质量和物质并不是真正可互换的。

And it's very important that you think of this in terms of mass and not matter because because mass and matter aren't really interchangeable.

物质就是冻结的能量。

Matter is frozen energy.

但当你拥有某物，比如土豆——土豆是每个人最爱的例子——这个土豆由一定数量的粒子组成，而每个粒子都有其自身的物质。

But when you have something, potato for instance, potato is everyone's favorite example, that that potato is made up of a certain amount of particles and those particles each have their their matter.

它们与希格斯玻色子相关。

They're tied to the Higgs boson.

它们因为这个而具有质量。

They have a mass because of that.

但其中的物质含量是特定的，而质量则不同，很难区分，因为你可以把一个原子拆开，无论你开始时是什么，你仍然拥有相同的粒子，但这些粒子的能量发生了变化，质量和能量是守恒的，而物质则是另一回事。

But but the amount of matter in it is a specific thing and the amount of mass is is different and it it's hard to sort that out because you can pull apart an atom and depending on what it was when you started, you still have the same bits, but the energy of the bits have changed and the mass energy is conserved and the matter is something different.

实际上，如果你取一堆能量，你可以将它转化为物质，但质量和能量是守恒的。

You can actually, if you take a bunch of energy, you can turn it into matter but the mass energy is conserved.

但他是怎么想到这一点的呢？

But how did this even occur to him?

对吧？

Right?

我的意思是，这就像是

Mean it's just like

他是个天才。

was a genius.

嗯，我明白这一点，我想你之前也提到过，他对质量以相对论速度运动时，其等价于能量这一推论进行了思考，对吧？

Well I understand that and I guess but I mean you mentioned this before right that he was thinking about about the implications of mass moving at relativistic speeds that that it being equivalent to energy had to be the outcome, right?

这自然地从方程中推导出来了。

It it falls out of the equations naturally.

当你被要求做广义相对论和狭义相对论的大量习题时，这是一件令人不安的事：当你开始思考，当物体加速时动量如何变化，并考虑相对论修正时？

That that's one of the disturbing things when you're asked to do all these homework problems in in general relativity and special relativity is is this is one of those things that when you start looking at, how does momentum change as as an object accelerates and you take into account relativistic corrections?

当你开始研究所有这些不同现象时，你会发现能量除以质量等于光速的平方这一关系自然而然地浮现出来，这就是它自然推导出来的方式。

How does the time When you start looking at all of these different things, it just falls out naturally that you have this e over m equals c squared, and that's how it falls out naturally.

它并不是以 E=mc² 的形式推导出来的。

It doesn't fall out as e equals m c squared.

它推导出来的是，光速的平方恰好等于能量除以质量。

It falls out as the speed of light squared just happens to boil down to energy divided by mass.

所以当爱因斯坦最初提出这个方程时。

And so back when when Einstein first first, proposed this this equation.

你提到马克斯·普朗克曾对此进行过改进。

Now you mentioned that Max Planck had sort of refined it.

爱因斯坦后来回来给它定了最终形式吗？

Did Einstein come back around and give it its final form?

爱因斯坦确实回到了这个话题。

Einstein did return to the topic.

他在其中一篇文章的标题中写下了 E=mc²，但当他这么做时，这个公式已经被普遍使用了。

He did write E equals MC squared in the title of one of his articles, but by the time he got around to doing it, it was already generally being used.

科学的伟大之处在于，尽管我们可能需要一段时间才能决定如何普遍称呼或命名某些事物。

That's one of the great things about science is while it may take us a while to decide how we're going to generally refer to things, what we're gonna name things.

但一旦这种关系被发现，每个人都会使用它。

Once that relationship is discovered, everyone uses it.

在这种情况下，他写下了简短的一句话。

And in in this case, he wrote down a brief sentence.

这句话流传开了。

It got out.

它被写了下来。

It got written out.

每个人都开始使用它，而他也因此获得了赞誉，因为他是第一个将其写下来的人。

Everyone started using it and he did get the credit because he was the first person to write it down.

但他写下 E=mc² 这个公式花费了更长的时间。

But him writing down equals m c squared took a little bit longer to get to.

而且我想，再次回到他最初提出这个理论的时候，那大概是十九世纪末、二十世纪初。

And I guess, again, back back when he first devised this, this was like the beginning of the nineteenth of the twentieth century.

对吧？

Right?

所以

So

二十世纪二十年代，然后他一直持续研究，贯穿了两次世界大战。

Nineteen twenties, and then he continued working on it through the two world wars.

对。

Right.

好的。

Okay.

但我的意思是，当时它们并没有太多实际应用，甚至很难去验证这一点。

And so but I mean, they didn't really have a lot of practical applications and ways to even test this out so much.

在天文学中，我们开始逐渐弄清楚了。

Well, in astronomy, we're starting to figure it out.

令人惊讶的是，当他们开始研究驱动恒星的量子力学，探索恒星中的核合成时，他们确实用到了所有这些概念。

And what's of amazing is they did have to use all these sorts of things when they were starting to figure out the quantum mechanics of what drove stars, when they were looking to figure out nuclear, nuclear synthesis in stars.

这影响了大量想法。

This is There There's a lot of ideas that this influences.

你需要有这种能量概念，这种质量和能量之间的联系，才能开始考虑核合成、核反应和核武器。

You need to have this energy idea, this this linking between mass and energy to start to consider nuclear nuclear synthesis, nuclear reactions, nuclear bombs.

它是许多非常可怕且强大——字面意义上的强大——理念的基础。

It's it's the foundation for a lot of very scary and powerful, and I mean that literally powerful ideas.

对。

Right.

所以我想，天文学家们会说：我们不知道恒星是如何工作的。

And so I guess you have the situation where the astronomers are like, we don't know how stars work.

我们认为它们在燃烧。

We think they burn.

因为你无法获得那么多能量。

Because you can't get that much energy.

已经弄明白了。

Figured it out.

对。

Right.

但我们仍在研究细节。

But we were still working on the details.

在世纪之交，彭士多为我们做了些出色的工作。

And Peng Shin did some good work for us in the turn of the century.

他们都是彼此的同胞。

They're all compatriots of each other.

对。

Right.

但你最终会遇到一种情况，拥有了一种机制。

But you get a situation where where you finally have a mechanism.

你可以更好地理解这种机制是什么，以及这种关系是什么。

You can understand a little bit better what that mechanism is and what that relationship is.

但当然，我认为当很多人想到 E=mc² 时，他们想到的是二战时期的核计划。

But but of course, I mean, I think that where a lot of people really think about equals m c squared, they think about the the nuclear program in the for World War two.

对。

Right.

当你想到 TNT、塑性炸药，或者大多数常规武器时，你所面对的是化学反应——当这种反应发生时，会释放出巨大的能量，相比之下，比如混合染发剂只会释放少量能量。

And and this is where when when you think of TNT, when you think of plastic explosives, when you think of most conventional weapons, you're looking at a chemical reaction that, when it takes place, gives off huge amounts of energy compared to, like, mixing hair dye, which releases a small amount of energy.

这就是为什么人们说在混合染发剂之前要先撕掉盖子。

This is why they say tear the cap off of the hair dye before you mix it.

如果刚才的话对在场的所有男士来说有点太专业了，抱歉。

Sorry if that was a little esoteric for all you men out there.

你染了很多头发，Pamela，所以我们知道那是

You dye a lot of hair, Pamela, so we know that's

你怎么染这么多头发？

do how you dye a lot of hair.

是的。

Yes.

所以很多化学反应都会释放能量。

So so lots of chemical reactions give off energy.

其中很多还会从环境中吸收能量，导致反应容器感觉变冷。

A lot of them also will will take energy from their environment and the container of the reactions going on going in will feel cold.

但如果一个反应足够放热、能量足够高，它释放的能量会直接摧毁正在进行的化学反应。

But if a reaction is exothermic enough, energetic enough, it will release energy that actually shatters the chemical reaction going on.

它向系统释放了如此多的动能，以至于物质会爆炸开来。

It it releases so much kinetic energy into the system that things blast apart.

但这是一种化学反应。

But this is a chemical reaction.

它涉及参与化学物质的结合能，以及这种结合能转化为动能和热能的过程。

It's it's has to do with the binding energies of the chemicals involved, and that binding energy getting transformed into kinetic energy and thermal energy.

核反应是将原子拆开，提取原子中的能量并释放出来。

With nuclear reactions, you're just taking the atoms apart and and taking the energy of the atoms and releasing that.

这比任何类型的化学键都要强大得多。

And and that's a lot more powerful than just a standard chemical bond of whatever sort you're dealing with.

因此，你现在从用土豆通过化学方式为科学展览项目供电，变成了用土豆中的全部能量为纽约市供电。

And so now you've gone from the potato powering via chemical means, a light for a science fair project, to all the energy in the potato powering New York City.

你确实在将土豆的质量转化为能量。

And so and you really are getting that that that conversion of the of the mass into energy of the potato.

物质能量。

The matter energy.

物质转化为能量。

The matter to energy.

是的。

Yeah.

如果你真的在核级别上炸掉那个土豆。

Were you to actually blow up that that potato at a at a nuclear level.

对。

Right.

幸运的是，土豆能抵抗这种反应。

And luckily potatoes resist this.

但另一方面，每个人都只想到核武器带来的死亡、破坏和混乱，只看到这一方的邪恶面。

But but the the other side of this that that I everyone thinks about the death, the destruction, the the mayhem that you can do with with nuclear weapons, and and they look at the evil side of the equation.

但更令人惊叹的是能量转化为物质这一面。

But what's kind of awesome is is the the converting energy into matter side of the equation.

你和我其实就是凝固的能量。

You and I are just frozen energy.

我们从不这样想。

We don't think of it that way.

但在宇宙形成之初，整个宇宙都只是能量。

But when our universe formed, the entire universe was was nothing but energy.

直到宇宙膨胀并冷却，能量才最终凝结成物质，电子、质子、中子才逐渐出现。

And it took the universe expanding and cooling for that energy to finally be able to freeze out into to matter, into electrons, protons, neutrons came in eventually.

早期就有核反应。

There was early nuclear reactions.

所有这些过程都是能量转化为物质的过程。

And all of that was this transformation process of energy into matter.

而今天，在我们试图理解粒子物理世界的过程中，我们会将电子、质子等粒子以高速度在各种类型的加速器中进行碰撞，具体取决于我们研究的目标。

And and today, in our quest to try and understand the particle physics world, we're we're taking particles, electrons, protons, colliding them at high velocities inside of various types of of accelerators depending on what we're looking for.

在碰撞的能量中，我们寻找从能量中产生的粒子，即动能转化为我们此前可能未曾意识到存在的物质。

And it's in the energy of that collision that we look for the particles that come out of the energy, the kinetic energy that's transformed into something that we may not have realized existed before.

那么这个过程是怎样的呢？

And so what is the process?

我的意思是，我们经常谈论将能量转化为物质，以及将物质转化为能量。

I mean, we talk about about turning energy into matter and matter into energy.

那么，具体来说，将能量转化为物质的过程是怎样的呢？

What is the process to actually turn, say energy into matter, for example?

科学现在是如何实现这一点的？

How can science do it now?

这涉及到克服原子核中心的力。

Well, it it's a matter of of overcoming the forces in the center of of the nuclei.

通常情况下，质子和中子存在于原子中心，由胶子结合在一起，因为我们正在研究将原子结合在一起的那些粒子的命名方式。

Normally, you have protons and neutrons protons and neutrons in the center of the atom that that are held together with gluons because we are boring in how we name the the things that hold our atoms together.

但与此同时，它们又相互排斥。

But at the same time, they are repelling each other.

这种奇怪的二元性导致原子随着体积增大而变得越来越不稳定。

This this is, the the strange dichotomy that that causes atoms to get more and more unstable as they get larger and larger.

当原子变得过大时，它就会变得不稳定并分裂成更稳定的状态。

And and eventually when an atom gets too large, it it's unstable, it splits into something more stable.

如果你能将这些粒子更紧密地挤压在一起，最终就能克服它们保持稳定和相互分离的能力。

Now, if you're able to take and squish those particles together even more, eventually you overcome their ability to to be stable and and separate from one another.

在被挤压的那一刻，它们被迫转化为能量。

And in that moment of of being crushed, they're they're forced to become energy.

因此，你是在克服原子内部的核力。

So you're overcoming the nuclear forces inside the atom.

对。

Right.

那么，他们实际是怎么做到的呢？比如在核反应堆中？

And so you've gotta and and like how practically do they do this, say, a nuclear reactor?

在核反应堆中，他们并不处理整个原子。

Well, in a nuclear reactor, they don't bother with the full atom.

他们将其分解为最简单的组成部分。

They strip it out to its simplest pieces.

所以你取两个质子。

So you take two protons.

你用巨大的力量让两个质子相撞，当它们相遇的瞬间，质子相互排斥的能力被它们已经高速相向运动的事实所克服。

You collide the two protons with so much, force that that in the moment they come together, the ability of of the protons to repel one another is overcome by the fact that they're already flying together.

排斥力没有足够的时间来减缓这一相互作用。

That force of repelling doesn't have the time to to slow the the interaction enough.

当它们结合时，最终被转化为纯能量，因为碰撞后它们无法再以质子的形式存在。

And as they come together, they end up getting converted into pure energy as they smash and they can no longer exist as protons.

所以，你知道，这几乎是做这件事最有效的方式。

And so, you know, and it's again, you know, almost the most efficient way to do this.

我的意思是，最有效的方式是物质与反物质。

I mean, most efficient way is the matter, antimatter.

但你首先得已经制造出反物质，对吧？

But you have to have already built your antimatter in the first place, right?

而这很复杂。

Which is complicated.

嗯，我不确定这其中是否有谁更高效或更低效。

Well, I I'm I'm not sure that that there's there's any, more or less efficiency in it.

它们只是不同而已。

They're just different.

所以在这两种情况下，你都在释放能量，而这些能量最终会凝结成粒子。

So in both cases, you're releasing energy, and and it's eventually freezing out as particles.

但没错，制造反物质可不容易。

But but yeah, creating antimatter is a bear.

而且它们就是不同的。

And and they're just different.

那么，我们换个方向，好吗？

And so and then let's go let's go the other way, right?

我们从物质转化为能量。

Let's go from from matter into energy.

这正是一个有趣的地方：如果你有一堆能量存在，它会自然坍缩成一个粒子和一个反粒子，它们动量守恒并朝相反方向飞离。

Well, this this is one of those neat parts where if you have a pile of energy hanging around, it will naturally collapse into a particle and antiparticle, that that have conserved momentum and fly off in opposite directions.

这其实一直在发生。

And this is this is something that's going on all the time.

日常中不断有反应发生，比如贝塔衰变和反贝塔衰变过程，中子衰变成质子、电子和反电子中微子，守恒动量、电荷以及所有其他守恒量。

There's reactions ongoing on a regular basis where where we have, for instance, beta decay and anti beta decay processes where neutrons break down into a proton and electron and anti electron neutrino, conserving the momentum, conserving the charge, conserving all the little bits.

我们不得不关注这些所有的守恒定律。

There's all these conservation rules that we have to pay attention to.

人们似乎普遍没有意识到的是，反粒子无处不在。

And and one of the things people don't really seem to acknowledge is there's antiparticles everywhere.

它们通常是反中微子，但到处都是。

They're generally anti neutrinos, but they're everywhere.

少量的反物质不会伤害你。

And a little bit of antimatter is not going to hurt you.

少量的反物质，对吧？

A little bit of anti, right?

它们在医学中使用，对吧？

Well, they use it for medicine, right?

他们把少量反物质注入你的体内，然后看着它在体内爆炸？不，当然不是

They drop a little bit of antimatter in your body and watch as it explodes inside No, of

他们通常使用少量普通的放射性物质，当它发生放射性衰变时，会释放出贝塔粒子和

they usually take a little bit of normal radioactive matter that as it undergoes radioactive decays does release beta particles and

嗯，我以为

Well, thought

曾经有一个

there was a

这种形式是正电子发射技术吗？

form of it that where they have was it positronic emission technology?

总之。

Anyway.

但没错，我的意思是，科学家们如今在日常工作中确实使用反物质。

But yeah, so I mean the point is that I mean scientists are using antimatter in their sort of daily work these days.

我们并没有让地球爆炸。

And we're not blowing up the planet.

真的不是问题。

Really not a concern.

反物质是存在的。

Antimatter exists.

我们还不太清楚为什么普通物质在宇宙中占主导地位。

We're not really sure why regular matter is the dominant in the universe.

人们正在研究这个问题。

Folks are working on it.

但事实上，反物质无处不在。

But but the reality is antimatter is everywhere.

它只是物质中的少数形式。

It's just the minority form of matter.

别嫌弃反物质。

Don't hate on the antimatter.

但偶尔会有自由漂浮的反粒子击中你的身体并发生爆炸吗？

But there are free floating antiparticles every now and then, hitting your body and detonating?

我觉得‘爆炸’这个词可能太强烈了。

I think detonating is probably too strong a word.

是湮灭，对吧？

Annihilating, right?

对，就是‘湮灭’这个词。

That's the word, annihilating.

总的来说，穿过你身体的反中微子并不想与任何东西发生相互作用。

So in general, the anti neutrinos that are passing through your body, they don't want to interact with anything.

它们并不想伤害你。

They don't want to do you any harm.

它们是最不合群的粒子。

They are the most antisocial of particles.

所以，发生任何坏事的概率，以及我们试图探测这些家伙时成功的概率，都非常低。

And and so the probabilities that that anything bad is gonna happen, the probabilities that we can even detect these suckers when we try is very low.

所以我们不需要担心。

So so we don't need to be worried.

而且，是的，正电子也会出现。

And, yeah, positrons happen too.

它们可能会造成损害。

They can do damage.

这就是为什么应该避免辐射。

This is why one should avoid radiation.

但朋友之间，少几个核苷酸又算得了什么呢？

But what's a few nucleotides among friends?

那么，这个方程在道德层面意味着什么呢？

So what were the sort of, I guess the moral implications of this equation?

我知道这让爱因斯坦感到非常痛苦，我想当他开始意识到这项技术或这个方程将被用于造成巨大破坏时，他十分悲伤。

I know that it caused Einstein quite a lot of, I don't know, he was quite sad, I think, when he started to realize what the implications of this technology or what of this equation were gonna be used for in terms of great destruction.

对吧？

Right?

嗯，这正是问题所在。

Well, it I mean, that's that's the problem.

科学既可以用于善，也可以用于恶，而道德往往跟不上技术的发展。

That science can be used for good and it can be used for evil, and morality doesn't often keep up with technology.

总会有这样的问题：权力的掌控，以及人类喜欢彼此支配。

And there's always the question of, well, dominance, and and humans like to be dominant over one another.

而他当时致力于理解所有最终将带来无数积极成果的科学。

And here he was working to understand all the science that would eventually lead to so many positives.

全球定位系统。

GPS.