《那些古怪又讓人憂心的問題》第1期:簡介
INTRODUCTION
THIS BOOK IS A collection of answers to hypothetical questions.
這本書裏包含了各種各樣稀奇古怪的問題的回答。These questions were submitted to me through my website, where-in addition to serving as a sort of Dear Abby for mad scientists-I draw xkcd, a stick-figure webcomic.
這些問題都是通過我的網站提交給我的，而在這個網站上--除了充當瘋狂科學家的答疑解惑專欄之外--我還會畫"xkcd"，一套火柴人風格的網絡漫畫。
I didn't start out making comics. I went to school for physics, and after graduating, I worked on robotics at NASA. I eventually left NASA to draw comics full-time, but my interest in science and math didn't fade. Eventually, it found a new outlet: answering the Internet's weird-and sometimes worrying-questions. This book contains a selection of my favorite answers from my website, plus a bunch of new questions answered here for the first time.
不過我並不是畫漫畫起家的，我的專業是物理，在畢業後去了美國航空航天局（NASA）做機器人方面的工作。後來我離開了NASA開始全職畫漫畫，但我對科學和數學的熱愛卻並未因此而消減。最終我找到了一個發揮我的能力的途徑：回答互聯網上各種稀奇古怪、有時讓人有些擔憂的問題。這本書中包含了網站上我最喜歡的一些問題，以及許多從未在網站上出現過的問題。I've been using math to try to answer weird questions for as long as I can remember. When I was five years old, my mother had a conversation with me that she wrote down and saved in a photo album. When she heard I was writing this book, she found the transcript and sent it to me. Here it is, reproduced verbatim from her 25-year-old sheet of paper:
從我有印象以來，我就一直在用數學來解決稀奇古怪的問題。在我5歲的時候，我的母親在一本相冊中記錄了當時她和我的一段對話。當她知道我在寫這本書後，她翻出了這本相冊並把它送到我手中。我從這張25年前記錄的紙上一字不差地把這些文字摘抄下來貼在這裏：Randall: Are there more soft things or hard things in our house?
蘭道爾：我們家裏硬的東西多還是軟的東西多？Julie: I don't know.
朱莉：我不知道。Randall: How about in the world?
蘭道爾：那全世界哪種東西多呢？Julie: I don't know.
朱莉：我不知道。Randall: Well, each house has three or four pillows, right?
蘭道爾：嗯，每家每戶都有三四個枕頭，對吧？Julie: Right.
朱莉：是的。Randall: And each house has about 15 magnets, right?
蘭道爾：然後每家每戶都有大約15塊磁鐵，對吧？Julie: I guess.
朱莉：我猜是吧。Randall: So 15 plus 3 or 4, let's say 4, is 19, right?
蘭道爾：所有15加上3或者4，不妨加上4吧，就是19，對吧？Julie: Right.
朱莉：是的。Randall: So there are probably about 3 billion soft things, and . . . 5 billion hard things. Well, which one wins?
蘭道爾：所以全世界一共有大約30億個……軟的東西，還有……50億個硬的……東西。那麼，誰贏了？Julie: I guess hard things.
朱莉：我猜是硬的東西吧。To this day I have no idea where I got "3 billion" and "5 billion" from. Clearly, I didn't really get how numbers worked.
直至今日我都不知道當時30億和50億這兩個數字是從哪裏冒出來的，很顯然那時我並不理解數字是怎麼回事兒。My math has gotten a little better over the years, but my reason for doing math is the same as it was when I was five: I want to answer questions.
後來我的數學水平慢慢地變好起來，但我使用數學知識的目的還是和我5歲那時一樣：我想用它來回答問題。hey say there are no stupid questions. That's obviously wrong; I think my question about hard and soft things, for example, is pretty stupid. But it turns out that trying to thoroughly answer a stupid question can take you to some pretty interesting places.
有人說世上沒有愚蠢的問題。這句話很明顯是不對的：比如說我覺得那時我問的關於硬的東西和軟的東西的問題就十分愚蠢。但後來我發現想要完整地回答一個愚蠢的問題有時會帶來許多十分有趣的東西。I still don't know whether there are more hard or soft things in the world, but I've learned a lot of other stuff along the way. What follows are my favorite parts of that journey.
我現在還是不知道世界上硬的東西多還是軟的東西多，但在回答問題的過程中我已經學到了許多其他的東西。接下來我將向你們呈現這段旅途中我最喜歡的那些部分。RANDALL MUNROE
蘭道爾·門羅
