Placeholder Image

字幕列表 影片播放

  • If you drive down a certain stretch of highway in the California desert, you will hear music.

    如果你在加州沙漠中的一段公路駕駛

  • It's supposed to sound a little bit like this:

    你會聽到一段音樂

  • [William Tell Overture, by Rossini]

    它應該聽起來像這樣:

  • but instead, it sounds like this.

    (羅西尼,《威廉 · 泰爾序曲》)

  • [William Tell Overture, by Rossini, but badly out of tune]

    但是,實在上聽起來像這樣。

  • That was the musical road of Lancaster, California.

    剛才就是位於加州 蘭開斯特 的音樂道路

  • And as you may have heard, it's a little bit out of tune.

    正如你所聽,這聽起來有點走調

  • A lot of money was spent on that road.

    這條道路花去了很多資金去建造

  • It was a publicity stunt for a car company who wanted to show off how clever they are.

    這是一個汽車公司的宣傳噱頭

  • And doing the calculations for something like that isn't really difficult.

    想要炫耀他們是多麼聰明

  • A musical note is a vibration in the air at a particular frequency.

    計算當中的數學計算真的不是很困難

  • And those vibrations can be made by a violin string or synthesised by a computer

    一個音符就是在空氣中的振動的特定頻率

  • or - in this case - made by vehicle tyres hitting grooves in the road.

    這些振動頻率可以通過小提琴弦或由電腦合成

  • The closer the grooves are, the faster the vibrations, and the higher the note.

    或在這種情況下,由汽車輪胎擊中道路的凹槽而造成

  • So take the speed limit,

    凹槽間越接近,振動的速度更快,音符亦會更高

  • divide by the frequency of the note you want,

    因此,將限速

  • and that's how often there should be a groove in the road.

    除以你想要的音符的頻率

  • And if people travel at the wrong speed, well, it shouldn't really matter.

    這就是每個凹槽的距離

  • It'll just be like slowing down or speeding up any other piece of music:

    如果人們在錯誤的速度行駛,它不應該真正的問題

  • it'll be in the wrong key, but it'll still sound right to most people's ears.

    它只會像任何其他音樂一樣加快或減慢

  • It won't sound like that mess.

    它雖會走調,但對於大部分人的耳朵來說還是沒問題

  • So what went wrong?

    它不會聽起來像那條路

  • At this point, I am indebted to David Simmons-Duffin,

    那麼,甚麼地方出了錯?

  • an assistant professor of physics at Caltech,

    在這一點上,我要感謝大衛 · 西蒙斯 · 達芬

  • whose interests include Quantum Field Theories and playing baroque violin.

    加州理工學院 的 物理學助理教授

  • Because he was, as far as I can tell,

    精於量子場理論和拉巴洛克小提琴

  • the very first person to figure out what went wrong:

    因為他,據我所知

  • and the problem was probably the English language.

    是第一個人去研究哪裏出了錯

  • Whoever did the calculations said that the grooves should be so far apart.

    而問題可能是英文這個語言

  • Let's say, four inches for the first note.

    做運算的人說凹槽應該相距甚遠

  • And they meant there should be a groove every four inches.

    例如第一個音符(相隔)四英寸 (10 cm)

  • But whoever gave the instructions to the work crew

    而他們說那裏應該每四英寸就有一條凹槽

  • said that the grooves should be "four inches apart".

    但是,給指令予建築人員的人說

  • And that was interpreted as four inches between the end of one groove

    凹槽應該相隔四英寸

  • and the start of the next one.

    這被解讀為凹槽尾與另一個凹槽頭相隔四英寸

  • They didn't include the width of the groove itself.

    他們並沒有加入凹槽本身的寬度

  • But your ears definitely do include it.

    但是,你的耳朵絕對包含那些錯誤

  • The highest note on that section of the William Tell Overture

    在《威廉 · 泰爾序曲》的最高音

  • should be one octave higher than the lowest.

    應與最低音的高一個八度

  • That means the frequency should be doubled,

    這意味著頻率應增加一倍

  • and that the grooves should be half the distance apart.

    並且凹槽間的距離應減半

  • And they are: if you don't include the width of the groove itself.

    它們的確是。如果你不包括凹槽自身的寬度。

  • That error means that every note is distorted not by a fraction of its value,

    這錯誤意味着每一個音符不單只有小部分歪曲

  • like if you're travelling at the wrong speed,

    就像如果你在錯誤的速度行駛

  • but by a constant amount: by the width of the grooves.

    而是一個不變的數量:槽與槽間的距離

  • The higher the note, the greater the effect of that distortion.

    音符越高,影響越大,走調便越嚴重

  • And the result is the mess that you are about to hear for a second time.

    其結果是,你第二次所聽的亂況

  • And the really strange part?

    而最奇怪的部份是…

  • This is the second musical road built in Lancaster, California.

    這是加州 蘭開斯特 興建的第二條音樂道路

  • The first one, built by the car company, was too close to residents,

    第一條由汽車公司興建的,由於太近民居

  • who complained about the constant noise.

    居民經常投訴連續不斷的噪音

  • And probably this note here.

    大概就是這個音符

  • So the city paved over it and rebuilt it...

    所以市政府鋪平了它,並重建它…

  • to the exact, same, wrong blueprints.

    以確切的,同樣的,錯誤的藍圖。

  • That's a take.

    這是一次(拍攝次數)

  • That is a take.

    就在那裏

  • Right there.

    而為了慶祝,我打算將油門踩盡

  • And in order to celebrate that take, I am going to put my foot down.

    這是一輛休旅車

  • This is an SUV.

    它沒有,呃……它沒有做到這一點。

  • It doesn't, er... it doesn't do that.

If you drive down a certain stretch of highway in the California desert, you will hear music.

如果你在加州沙漠中的一段公路駕駛

字幕與單字

單字即點即查 點擊單字可以查詢單字解釋