萬物簡史 第62期:事物的測定(20)

With Mason refusing to survey the mountain, thejob fell to Maskelyne. So for four months in thesummer of 1774, Maskelyne lived in a tent in aremote Scottish glen and spent his days directing ateam of surveyors, who took hundreds ofmeasurements from every possible position. To findthe mass of the mountain from all these numbersrequired a great deal of tedious calculating, forwhich a mathematician named Charles Hutton wasengaged.

由于梅森不愿意測量那座山，這個工作落在了馬斯基林身上。1774年夏天，有4個月時間，馬斯基林在一個遙遠的蘇格蘭峽谷的帳篷里指揮一組測量員。他們從每個可能的位置作了數(shù)百次測量。要從這么一大堆的數(shù)據(jù)中得出那座大山的質(zhì)量，需要進行大量而又枯燥的計算。承擔這項工作的是一位名叫查爾斯·赫頓的數(shù)學家。

The surveyors had covered a map with scores of figures, each marking an elevation at somepoint on or around the mountain. It was essentially just a confusing mass of numbers, butHutton noticed that if he used a pencil to connect points of equal height, it all became muchmore orderly. Indeed, one could instantly get a sense of the overall shape and slope of themountain. He had invented contour lines.

測量員們在地圖上寫滿了幾十個數(shù)據(jù)，每一個都表示山上或山邊某個位置的高度。這些數(shù)字真是又多又亂。但是，赫頓注意到，只要用鉛筆把高度相等的點連起來，一切就顯得很有次序了。實際上，你馬上可以知道這座山的整體形狀和坡度。于是，他發(fā)明了等高線。

Extrapolating from his Schiehallion measurements, Hutton calculated the mass of the Earth at5,000 million million tons, from which could reasonably be deduced the masses of all the othermajor bodies in the solar system, including the Sun. So from this one experiment we learnedthe masses of the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, the other planets and their moons, and gotcontour lines into the bargain—not bad for a summer's work.

根據(jù)斯希哈林山的測量結(jié)果，赫頓計算出地球的質(zhì)量為5000萬億噸。在此基礎(chǔ)上，可以推算出太陽系里包括太陽在內(nèi)的所有主要天體的質(zhì)量。因此，我們從這一次實驗知道了地球、太陽、月球和其他行星及其衛(wèi)星的質(zhì)量，另外還發(fā)明了等高線——這一個夏天的收獲真是不小。