You’re too exhausted to actually cook a decent meal, so you reach into the freezer

你已經累到不想煮飯了，所以決定翻翻冰箱有沒有吃的

and pull out a frozen dinner from the back.

並找到了之前冰起來的食物

Your stomach rumbles.

你飢腸轆轆

You open the box and pull out your lasagna and. Noooo!

你打開盒子，把千層麵拿出來......不！

Freezer burn.

他凍傷了

Everything’s covered in a thick layer of stale-smelling ice crystals, and you know

裡面全部都覆蓋著有臭味的冰霜，

your dinner is ruined.

你知道你的晚餐毀了

It’s a common thing. Any food you leave in the freezer too long is eventually going

這很常見。任何食物在冰箱放太久，最終都會

to end up about as appealing as a dead Tauntaun.

像星際大戰中湯湯死在霍斯星球上

Why, you ask?

你想問，到底為什麼會這樣？

Because it’s drying up.

因為它水分被抽乾了

See, there are frozen water molecules in your steak, or ice cream, or bag of corn.

你看，像是牛排、冰淇淋或一袋玉米中的水分子都結冰了

And over time, in the dry air of your freezer, some of those molecules tend to sublimate

而後經過一段時間，冰箱的冷空氣使這些水分子逐漸昇華

-- in other words, they go directly from solid ice to water vapor.

換言之，水分子直接從冰變成水蒸氣

You may have noticed this happening to ice cubes, too -- it’s why they slowly shrink

你可能有發現冰塊也是這樣的，這就是為什麼它在製冰盒中逐漸變小

in their trays when you could’ve sworn you filled them up all the way.

即使你製冰的時候明明就有把水裝滿

The molecules will often then re-freeze somewhere else, like on the package or as part of the

水分子會在其他地方重新結凍，像是在包裝上或者是

gigantic frost wall that’s threatening to slowly take over your entire freezer.

覆蓋在冰箱四周的冰霜

But either way, your food isn’t getting its moisture back -- it ends up dehydrated

無論如何，食物中的水分回不去了，它也因此脫水

and discolored, not to mention puckered and gray and generally unappetizing.

並且褪色，更不要說看起來很不可口的變形、變色

You can help delay freezer burn by double-wrapping foods and sealing them in air-tight containers

你可以多包幾層包或者使用密閉的容器來防止食物凍傷

to reduce their exposure to air, but if you leave your food in the freezer long enough, eventually

來減少與空氣的接觸面積，但如果你把食物擺在冰箱太久，最終

sublimation is going to ruin your dinner plans.

也會毀掉你的晚餐計畫

The good news -- if you can call it that -- is that frozen foods don’t decay, so while freezer-burned

但好消息是，冷凍的食物不會腐敗，所以食物凍傷

food might look and smell terrible, it's probably still safe to eat, technically.

吃下去也沒什麼關係。

Thanks for asking, and thanks especially to all of our patrons on Patreon who keep these

謝謝你們的提問，並特別感謝我們的贊助商Patreon讓我們能夠

answers coming. If you’d like to submit questions to be answered, or get some videos

繼續替大家回答問題。如果你們還有待解的難題，或者想看

a few days early, go to patreon.com/scishow. And don’t forget to go to youtube.com/scishow

前幾日的影片，去patreon.com/scishow，並且不要忘記去youtube.com/scishow看看

and subscribe!

並訂閱喔！