《那些古怪又讓人憂心的問題》第145期:15級地震(2)
Yes! In fact, the scale goes all the way down past zero. Let's take a look at some low-magnitude “earthquakes,” with a description of what they would be like if they hit your house.
Magnitude 0
0級地震The Dallas Cowboys running at full tilt into the side of your neighbor's garage
達拉斯牛仔橄欖球隊全體隊員全速撞上你家鄰居的車庫牆上。
Magnitude -1
-1級地震A single football player running into a tree in your yard
一名橄欖球運動員撞上你家院子裏的一棵樹。Magnitude -2
-2級地震A cat falling off a dresser
一隻貓從梳妝檯上摔下來。Magnitude -3
-3級地震A cat knocking your cell phone off your nightstand
一隻貓把你的手機從牀頭櫃上推下去了。Magnitude -4
-4級地震A penny falling off a dog
一分錢硬幣從一隻狗身上掉下來。Magnitude -5
-5級地震A key press on an IBM model M keyboard
在IBM的M型鍵盤上按下一個鍵。Magnitude -6
-6級地震A key press on a lightweight keyboard
在輕型鍵盤上按下一個鍵。Magnitude -7
-7級地震A single feather fluttering to the ground
一片羽毛落到地上。Magnitude -8
-8級地震A grain of fine sand falling onto the pile at the bottom of a tiny hourglass
一粒細砂落到沙漏底部的沙堆上。. . . and let's jump all the way down to
……讓我們直接跳到Magnitude -15
-15級地震A drifting mote of dust coming to rest on a table
空氣中飄動的一粒塵埃落到桌上。Sometimes it's nice not to destroy the world for a change.
有時換種思路，不去破壞任何東西的感覺真好。1 Similarly, the F-scale (Fujita scale) has been replaced by the EF-scale (“Enhanced Fujita”). Sometimes, a unit of measure is made obsolete because it is terrible - for example, “kips” (1000 pounds-force), “kcfs” (thousands of cubic feet per second), and “degrees Rankine” (degrees Fahrenheit above absolute zero). (I have had to read technical papers written in each of those units.) Other times, you get the sense that scientists just want something to correct people about.
1． 同樣的，藤田級數也已經被改良藤田級數所取代。有時人們廢棄一種單位只是因爲它用起來太糟糕，比如千磅力（kips）每秒千立方英尺（kcfs），以及蘭氏度（表示比絕對零度高多少華氏度）。（我曾經不得不讀用這些單位寫成的技術論文）在其他一些時候，你會意識到科學家們只是想要糾正人們的想法。
