【新唐人2011年1月26日讯】【看新闻学英语】
Students Engineer Mobile Phone to Lift a Refrigerator
学生工程师用手机吊起冰箱
文／Daniel Chen, David Lee
【新闻关键字】
1. Conundrum [kəˋnʌndrəm] n. 难题
2. Magnify [ˋmægnə͵faɪ] v. 放大
3. Boast [bost] v. 夸口
4. Lever [ˋlɛvɚ] n. 杠杆
5. Gearbox [ˋgɪr͵bɑks] n. 变速箱
6. Cog [kɑg] n. 齿轮
7. Snag [snæg] n. 意外的障碍
8. Ingenious [ɪnˋdʒinjəs] adj. 精巧的
9. Fridge [frɪdʒ] n. 冰箱
10. Perturb [pɚˋtɝb] v. 使焦虑
11. Wind turbine ph. 风力涡轮发电机
12. Long-winded [ˋlɔŋˋwɪndɪd] adj. 冗长枯燥的
STORY:
How do you lift a refrigerator using a cell phone?
您要如何用手机吊起一座冰箱呢？
This is the conundrum Chinese mechanics professor Gao Yunfeng asked his students to solve.
这是力学教授高云峰要求他的学生来解决的难题。
And they were armed only with steel wire, a borrowed mobile phone and the laws of physics.
而且，他们只配备了钢丝、借来的行动电话，以及物理定律。
[Gao Yunfeng Professor, Tsinghua University]:
“I am teaching mechanics and I wanted to give my students challenging assignments. The challenge that I gave my students this time was how to magnify power. Magnifying power itself isn’t too hard, but greatly magnifying it is the challenging part – for example increasing it 10,000-fold. Archimedes once boasted that if he had a long enough lever, he could move the earth."
清华大学教授高云峰说：
“我教力学，我想给我的学生具有挑战性的功课。这一次我给学生的挑战是如何放大功率。放大功率本身并不会太难，但若是要把它放的非常大则会很有挑战性，例如增加1万倍。阿基米德曾夸口说，如果他有足够长的杠杆，他可以撬动地球。”
In just two weeks, the team came up with a solution.
就在两周内，团队想出了解决方法。
The mechanism relies on a tailor-made gearbox containing a series of cogs that slow down the mobile phone’s vibrator motor, thus increasing its force.
这个机制依靠一个特制的变速箱，包含了一系列减缓手机震动马达的齿轮，从而增加它的力量。
Slowing the spin of a motor which could lift weights of only one gram magnifies its force 100,000 times, says Gao, making it powerful enough to lift up to 100 kilograms.
高教授说，减缓马达的转速，可以让原来只能举起一克的重量放大10万倍，让它强大到足以举起 100公斤。
Gao says the hardest challenge was finding parts for the gearbox.
高教授说，最困难的挑战是寻找变速箱的零件。
[Gao Yunfeng Professor, Tsinghua University]:
“In making the gearbox, we couldn’t find a device to reduce weight, so we had to make one ourselves. We searched a lot of shops to find the parts to put it together. We ended up taking parts from toys and industrial electric motors. We also pulled some parts out of vehicles. We had some technical problems."
清华大学教授高云峰说：
“制作变速箱时，我们无法找到可以减轻重量的装置，所以我们不得不自己做一个。我们在很多商店寻找零件，想把它组装起来。最后，我们是拆用玩具和工业电机上的零件。我们也拆一些汽车零件来用。我们有一些技术问题。”
The only snag to this ingenious invention is that it takes the cell phone motor more than two hours to lift a fridge just one meter off the ground.
这个巧妙发明唯一的意外障碍，是手机马达得花超过两个小时才能仅仅让冰箱离地一米。
Not perturbed by speed though, Gao plans to patent his idea and develop a gearbox that will magnify the power collected from a wind turbine in a light breeze.
然而速度不是重点，高教授计划将他的想法申请专利，并且开发一种变速箱，可以把一个微风风力发电机的功率放大。
He’s hoping that process won’t be as long-winded.
他希望这一计划进度不要拖太久。
本则影音新闻出处：新唐人电视台英语新闻
http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/ns_life/2011-01-19/292625093444.html
本专栏由前卫英语David Lee主编 www.davidlee.url.tw
【佳句精选】
How do you lift a refrigerator using a cell phone?
您要如何用手机吊起一座冰箱呢？
【佳句精选】
In just two weeks, the team came up with a solution.
就在两周内，团队想出了解决方法。
