BrianGreene_2005[使弦理论的意义]

1.In the year 1919, a virtually unknown German mathematician named Theodor Kaluza suggested a very bold and, in some ways, a very bizarre idea.
在1919年， 一位显为人知名叫“西奥多?卡鲁扎”的德国数学家 提出了一个大胆，甚至有些异乎寻常的猜想。
2.He proposed that our universe might actually have more than the three dimensions that we are all aware of.
他认为在我们的宇宙 可能实际上包含不只三个维度 并非像我们一贯所认为的那样。
3.That is in addition to left, right, back, forth and up, down, Kaluza proposed that there might be additional dimensions of space that for some reason we don't yet see.
除了我们熟悉的左和右，前与后，上跟下外， “卡鲁扎”认为空间里可能包含有额外的维度 只是因为某些特殊原因，我们还无法认知。
4.Now, when someone makes a bold and bizarre idea, sometimes that's all it is -- bold and bizarre, but it has nothing to do with the world around us.
当一个人有了大胆怪异的猜想， 我们通常只会关注其大胆和古怪的部分， 而这部分和我们存在的现实世界是毫无关联的。
5.This particular idea, however -- although we don't yet know whether it's right or wrong, and at the end I'll discuss experiments which, in the next few years,
但是这一次，面对于这个猜想-- 虽然我们还不知道它的正确与否， 之后我会谈谈一些会在未来几年里进行的实验，
6.may tell us whether it's right or wrong -- this idea has had a major impact on physics in the last century and continues to inform a lot of cutting-edge research.
可能会证实它的真伪-- 这个猜想在上个世纪已经给物理学界带来了重大冲击 毫无疑问，它会进一步推动大量前沿学科的研究。
7.So I'd like to tell you something about the story of these extra dimensions.
所以，我想借此机会与你一起探讨一下这些“额外的维度”。
8.So where do we go?
我们从哪里开始好呢？
9.To begin we need a little bit of back story. Go to 1907.
先让我们谈一些背景知识吧。话说1907年，
10.This is a year when Einstein is basking in the glow of having discovered the special theory of relativity and decides to take on a new project --
那年“爱因斯坦”已经成功地 发现了狭义相对论 并且正计划开启一个新的课题研究--
11.to try to understand fully the grand, pervasive force of gravity.
进一步深入地发掘被大家普遍认知的重力的由来。
12.And in that moment, there are many people around who thought that that project had already been resolved.
那时，很多人 认为该课题早已被攻克了。
13.Newton had given the world a theory of gravity in the late 1600s that works well, describes the motion of planets, the motion of the moon and so forth,
“牛顿”已经在17世纪末提出了重力理论 该理论可以正确地描述了星球间的运动， 月亮的运动等等，
14.the motion of apocryphal of apples falling from trees, hitting people on the head.
但这个导致苹果坠落的令人质疑的运动， 一直困扰着大家。
15.All of that could be described using Newton's work.
虽然这些运动都可以运用牛顿理论来描述，
16.But Einstein realized that Newton had left something out of the story, because even Newton had written that although he understood how to calculate the effect of gravity,
但是“爱因斯坦”意识到“牛顿”遗留下了一些未解的东西， 甚至“牛顿”本人也提到 虽然他明白如何计算“重力”的影响，
17.he'd been unable to figure out how it really works.
但是他无法真切地了解“重力”究竟是如何工作的。
18.How is it that the Sun, 93 million miles away, somehow it affects the motion of the earth?
为什么距离地球9千3百万英里外的太阳， 可以影响到地球的运动？
19.How does the Sun reach out across empty inert space and exert influence?
太阳是如何超越空旷无极的宇宙来施展它的魔力？
20.And that is a task to which Einstein set himself -- to figure out how gravity works.
这恰恰是“爱因斯坦”想探讨地-- 究竟“重力”是从何而来。
21.And let me show you what it is that he found.
让我们来看看他究竟发现了什么。
22.So Einstein found that the medium that transmits gravity is space itself.
“爱因斯坦”发现 传递“重力”的媒介其实就是空间本身。
23.The idea goes like this: imagine space is a substrate of all there is.
他的观点是这样的： 想象空间是承载万物的本源。
24.Einstein said space is nice and flat, if there's no matter present.
“爱因斯坦”认为在没有任何物质存在的情况下，空间是细致扁平的。
25.But if there is matter in the environment, such as the Sun, it causes the fabric of space to warp, to curve.
但在有物质存在的情况下， 比如说太阳， 它会导致这个类似织布的空间扭曲。
26.And that communicates the force of gravity.
而这导致了“重力”的产生。
27.Even the earth warps space around it.
地球同样会扭曲在它四周的空间。
28.Now look at the moon.
你看月亮。
29.The moon is kept in orbit, according to these ideas, because it rolls along a valley in the curved environment that the sun and the moon and the earth can all create by virtue of their presence.
根据这个想法，月亮之所以能保持在它的轨道上， 是因为它沿着曲面的内测旋转 太阳，地球，月亮间的影响力均是因为它们本身的存在而产生的。
30.We go to a full-frame view of this.
我们来总体看一下。
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31.The earth itself is kept in orbit because it rolls along a valley in the environment that's curved because of the sun's presence.
地球之所以保持在其轨道上 是因为它旋转的曲面是 太阳的存在而产生的。
32.That is this new idea about how gravity actually works.
这是一个崭新的关于“重力”由来的观点。
33.Now, this idea was tested in 1919 through astronomical observations.
随后，这个观点在1919年通过天文观测被肯定。
34.It really works. It describes the data.
这个观点能够正确的解释相关的数据。
35.And this gained Einstein prominence around the world.
这使得“爱因斯坦”在世界上名声大震。
36.And that is what got Kaluza thinking.
而这也促使了“卡鲁扎”去思考。