時差N小時:為什么定位空中的飛機如此難?

How many times have you heard a jet plane goingover, looked up to see it, but not been able tofind iteven though you were looking toward where thesound was coming from?

有多少次你聽到一架噴氣式飛機飛過，抬起頭去看它，即使你朝著聲音傳來的地方望去，卻仍然無法找到它?

Well, thismoment of science is going to tell you whyyou couldn't find it?

那么這次科學時刻將會告訴你為什么你找不到它。

Sometime during your life you might have been toldthat the plane wasn't with the sound becauseit wastraveling faster than the speed of sound.

在你生活中的某個時候，你可能被告知看到的飛機和聽到的聲音是不在同時出現(xiàn)的，這是因為光的傳播速度比聲音快。

It might have been, but it didn't have to be goingthat fast in order to appear to be separatedfrom the sound.

它可能是這樣的，但它沒有必要為了同聲音分離而飛的那么快。

The reason the jet appeared to be apart from the noise it was making was simply thatsoundtravels a lot more slowly than light-about a million times more slowly.

噴氣式飛機之所以和它產生的噪音相分離，是因為聲音傳播速度比光速慢一百萬倍。

For quick review, at sea levelsound travels about seven-hundred-fifty miles per hour, lighttravels at 186,000 miles per second.

簡單回顧一下，在海平面上，聲音的傳播速度大約是每小時750英里，而光速則是每秒186，000英里。

Commercial jets normally fly at about thirty-thousand feet.

商用噴氣式飛機一般在30，000英尺的高空飛行。

From that height it takes sound aboutthirty seconds to reach earth.

從那個高度，聲音傳送到地面需要30秒的時間，

Light gets here in only about four one-hundred-thousandths of asecond, or for practicalpurposes, instantaneously.

而光到達地面僅僅需要4/100，000秒，實際上就是瞬間到達。

A plane travelling at six-hundred miles an hour goes five miles in the thirty seconds it takes forthesound to reach you.

一架每小時飛行600英里的飛機在30秒中飛行了5英里，而聲音傳到你所在的地方需要30秒。

By the time the sound from the plane reaches your ears, the plane is fivemiles from wherethat sound originated.

在這30秒的時間里，聲音從飛機傳到你的耳朵里，而飛機離聲音發(fā)出的地方已經(jīng)有了5英里的距離。

So, when you look toward the sound, the plane is notthere anymore.

所以，當你朝聲音發(fā)出的地方望去的時候，飛機早已不在那里了。