四级翻译：那些复杂到让你困惑的简单小事(7)

2015-10-16 15:20:40来源：网络

　　7.There's No Universally Accepted Theory On How Bikes Work

　　关于自行车的工作原理，还没有普遍认同的理论

　　Bicycles have existed for over 100 years, and since they were invented we've mastered land, sea, and air travel while making impressive headway into space. We have planes that can traverse the globe in a matter of hours, so you'd think that by now we'd have the humble bicycle just about figured out. But oddly, that's not the case.

　　自行车已经有100多年的历史了，并且自从自行车发明后，我们又掌握了水陆空交通，而且在太空探索方面也取得了令人印象深刻的进展。我们的飞机可以在若干小时内飞遍全球，因此，也许你会认为时至今日，我们差不多已经弄明白了毫不起眼的自行车的工作原理。但奇怪地是，事实并非如此。

　　As mentioned in this article, scientists have been arguing about how exactly they work, or more specifically, how they stay upright, almost since they were first invented. For a long time, the major theory was that the gyroscopic force of the wheels spinning kept bikes upright, but when scientists built a special bicycle with contraptions attached to it designed to counteract any gyroscopic forces produced by the wheels, it stayed upright and no one could explain how.

　　正如《我们仍不知道自行车的工作原理》(We still don't really know how bicycles work)一文中提到的那样，自从人类发明自行车之初，科学家们就一直为自行车确切的工作原理，更具体地说-它们是如何保持平衡的而争论不休。很长时间以来，一种主要的理论是车轮旋转发出的回转力使得自行车保持平衡。但是后来科学家们制造了一辆特殊的自行车，在车上安装了奇妙的装置来抵消轮子所产生的回转力，自行车仍能保持平衡，没有人能解释这是为什么。

　　There are theories that the bike's design allows it to steer into a fall and thus correct itself, but they're still just theories. And because bicycle dynamics isn't exactly an area of science into which researchers like to invest their time, it's highly unlikely that we'll know for sure anytime soon.

　　还有理论称自行车的设计使其能够引导车子倾斜的方向2，进而作出调整，不过这些也只是理论。而且由于研究者们不太愿意将他们的时间花在自行车动力学这一科学领域，在未来很短的时间内，我们是不大可能知道自行车确切的工作原理的。

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