万物简史 第372期:进入对流层(13)

 The standard way to envision this is to imagine yourself at the center of a large carousel¹ and tossing a ball to someone positioned on the edge. By the time the ball gets to the perimeter², the target person has moved on and the ball passes behind him. From his perspective, it looks as if it has curved away from him. That is the Coriolis effect, and it is what gives weather systems their curl and sends hurricanes spinning off like tops. The Coriolis effect is also why naval³ guns firing artillery⁴ shells have to adjust to left or right; a shell fired fifteen miles would otherwise deviate⁵ by about a hundred yards and plop harmlessly into the sea.

若要了解这一点，一般的办法是想像自己立在一个大体育场的中央，把一个球抛给站在边缘的人。等球抵达边缘的时候，那个人已经向前移动，球从他的背后飞了过去。从他的角度看来，那个球似乎以弧线运动绕开了他。这就是科里奥利效应；那种效应使得天气体系发生卷曲，使飓风像陀螺那样打着转儿移动。科里奥利效应还说明为什么海军在发射炮弹的过程中不得不向左或向右调整方向。要不然，一发射向25公里远处的炮弹会偏离目标夫约90米，掉在海里打不中目标。

Considering the practical and psychological importance of the weather to nearly everyone, it's surprising that meteorology didn't really get going as a science until shortly before the turn of the nineteenth century (though the term meteorology itself had been around since 1626, when it was coined by a T. Granger in a book of logic).

考虑到天气在实际上和心理上几乎对每个人的重要性，气象学到19世纪前夕才开始成为一门科学（虽然气象学这个名字自1626年以来一直就有。它是由一个名叫T·格兰杰的人在一本逻辑学的书里创造的），这真是令人不可思议。

Part of the problem was that successful meteorology requires the precise measurement of temperatures, and thermometers for a long time proved more difficult to make than you might expect. An accurate reading was dependent on getting a very even bore in a glass tube, and that wasn't easy to do. The first person to crack the problem was Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit⁶, a Dutch maker⁷ of instruments, who produced an accurate thermometer in 1717.

一定程度上，问题在于成功的气象学需要精确测量温度，而生产温度汁在很长时间里实在比你预料的还要困难。精确的读数取决于玻璃管的内径要非常均匀。那可是不容易做到的。解决这个问题的第一人是荷兰仪表制造商达尼埃尔·加布里埃尔·华伦海特。他于1717年制造出一支非常精确的温度计。

1 carousel   

n.旋转式行李输送带

参考例句：

• Riding on a carousel makes you feel dizzy.乘旋转木马使你头晕。
• We looked like a bunch of awkward kids riding a slow-moving carousel.我们看起来就像一群骑在旋转木马上的笨拙的孩子。

2 perimeter   

n.周边，周长，周界

参考例句：

• The river marks the eastern perimeter of our land.这条河标示我们的土地东面的边界。
• Drinks in hands,they wandered around the perimeter of the ball field.他们手里拿着饮料在球场周围漫不经心地遛跶。

3 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

4 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

5 deviate   

v.(from)背离，偏离

参考例句：

• Don't deviate from major issues.不要偏离主要问题。
• I will never deviate from what I believe to be right.我绝不背离我自信正确的道路。

6 Fahrenheit   

n./adj.华氏温度；华氏温度计(的)

参考例句：

• He was asked for the boiling point of water in Fahrenheit.他被问到水的沸点是华氏多少度。
• The thermometer reads 80 degrees Fahrenheit.寒暑表指出华氏80度。

7 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。