时差N小时 富兰克林靠风筝发现了电?(上)

Did Ben Franklin really discover electricity with a kite?

本.富兰克林靠一只风筝发现了电？

That's a good one.

这是个好问题。

Everybody has heard the famous story of how pioneering experimenter–and part-time founding father–Ben Franklin tied a key to a kite string and flew the kite in a thunderstorm¹.

大家都听过这个著名故事：开创性实验者兼开国之父——本.富兰克林将一串钥匙系在风筝线上，在电闪雷鸣的恶劣天气下放风筝。

The kite was hit by lightning, and zap! Franklin had discovered electricity.

风筝被闪电击中并烧毁，于是富兰克林发现了电。

Fried² Franklin

烧焦的富兰克林

Well, it makes a better story than it does an experiment.

这只是一则故事而非实验。

The danger is that lightning is not something you want to play with, and you certainly don’t want to attract it to yourself!

该实验之所以危险是因为：闪电不是人类随意把玩的东西，当然你也不想引“电”上身吧。

Were this story to be true, I’m afraid, the result would have been fried Franklin.

如果这个故事是真的，恐怕富兰克林早已被烧焦了。

1 thunderstorm   

n.雷雨；雷暴

参考例句：

• Thunderstorm is common in summer.雷电交加的暴风雨在夏天很常见。
• The thunderstorm will perhaps settle the weather.大雷雨可能使天气稳定下来。

2 fried   

adj.油煎的；油炒的

参考例句：

• I ate everything fried.所有油炸的我都吃。
• I prefer fried peanuts.我选择炸花生。