《那些古怪又讓人憂心的問題》第57期:尤達大師(2)
That's enough to power a block of suburban homes. It's also equal to about 25 horsepower, which is about the power of the motor in the electric-model Smart Car.
At current electricity prices, Yoda would be worth about $2/hour.
按照目前的電價，尤達每小時發出的能量價值約為2美元。But telekinesis is just one type of Force power. What about that lightning the Emperor used to zap Luke? The physical nature of it is never made clear, but Tesla coils that produce similar displays draw something like 10 kilowatts-which would put the Emperor roughly on par with Yoda. (Those Tesla coils typically use lots of very short pulses. If the Emperor is sustaining a continuous arc, as in an arc welder, the power could easily be in the megawatts.)
但遠距施力只是原力的其中一種形式。西斯大帝用來震擊盧克的閃電又如何呢？這道閃電的物理本質始終沒講明白，但能夠產生相似場景的特斯拉線圈的功率在10千瓦左右，表明大帝的輸出功率和尤達相當。（這些特斯拉線圈一般用的是許多持續時間很短的脈衝，如果西斯大帝能夠像電焊機那樣一直維持電弧的話，輸出功率將輕鬆突破百萬兆瓦。）
What about Luke? I examined the scene where he used his nascent Force powers to yank his lightsaber out of the snow. The numbers are harder to estimate here, but I went through frame-by-frame and came up with an estimate of 400 watts for his peak output. This is a fraction of Yoda's 19kW, and was sustained for only a fraction of a second.
那麼盧克呢？我檢驗了一下他用原力把光劍從雪裡拔出來的場景。具體的數字很難估算出來，但我進行了逐幀分析之後，得出的估計值是400瓦的峰值輸出。這和尤達19千瓦的輸出相比實在不足一提，而且持續時間也只有幾分之一秒。So Yoda sounds like our best bet as an energy source. But with world electricity consumption pushing 2 terawatts, it would take a hundred million Yodas to meet our demands. All things considered, switching to Yoda power probably isn't worth the trouble-though it would definitely be green.
所以用尤達作為能量源看起來是最好的選擇。不過隨著全世界用電量迫近2太瓦，我們需要1億個尤達才能滿足供電需求。總之把所有的因素考慮在內，換用尤達發電很可能是得不償失——但這絕對是一種綠色能源。
