【新唐人2011年1月26日訊】【看新聞學英語】
Students Engineer Mobile Phone to Lift a Refrigerator
學生工程師用手機吊起冰箱
文／Daniel Chen, David Lee
【新聞關鍵字】
1. Conundrum [kəˋnʌndrəm] n. 難題
2. Magnify [ˋmægnə͵faɪ] v. 放大
3. Boast [bost] v. 誇口
4. Lever [ˋlɛvɚ] n. 槓桿
5. Gearbox [ˋgɪr͵bɑks] n. 變速箱
6. Cog [kɑg] n. 齒輪
7. Snag [snæg] n. 意外的障礙
8. Ingenious [ɪnˋdʒinjəs] adj. 精巧的
9. Fridge [frɪdʒ] n. 冰箱
10. Perturb [pɚˋtɝb] v. 使焦慮
11. Wind turbine ph. 風力渦輪發電機
12. Long-winded [ˋlɔŋˋwɪndɪd] adj. 冗長枯燥的
STORY:
How do you lift a refrigerator using a cell phone?
您要如何用手機吊起一座冰箱呢？
This is the conundrum Chinese mechanics professor Gao Yunfeng asked his students to solve.
這是力學教授高雲峰要求他的學生來解決的難題。
And they were armed only with steel wire, a borrowed mobile phone and the laws of physics.
而且，他們只配備了鋼絲、借來的行動電話，以及物理定律。
[Gao Yunfeng Professor, Tsinghua University]:
“I am teaching mechanics and I wanted to give my students challenging assignments. The challenge that I gave my students this time was how to magnify power. Magnifying power itself isn’t too hard, but greatly magnifying it is the challenging part – for example increasing it 10,000-fold. Archimedes once boasted that if he had a long enough lever, he could move the earth."
清華大學教授高雲峰說：
「我教力學，我想給我的學生具有挑戰性的功課。這一次我給學生的挑戰是如何放大功率。放大功率本身並不會太難，但若是要把它放的非常大則會很有挑戰性，例如增加1萬倍。阿基米德曾誇口說，如果他有足夠長的槓桿，他可以撬動地球。」
In just two weeks, the team came up with a solution.
就在兩週內，團隊想出了解決方法。
The mechanism relies on a tailor-made gearbox containing a series of cogs that slow down the mobile phone’s vibrator motor, thus increasing its force.
這個機制依靠一個特製的變速箱，包含了一系列減緩手機震動馬達的齒輪，從而增加它的力量。
Slowing the spin of a motor which could lift weights of only one gram magnifies its force 100,000 times, says Gao, making it powerful enough to lift up to 100 kilograms.
高教授說，減緩馬達的轉速，可以讓原來只能舉起一克的重量放大10萬倍，讓它強大到足以舉起 100公斤。
Gao says the hardest challenge was finding parts for the gearbox.
高教授說，最困難的挑戰是尋找變速箱的零件。
[Gao Yunfeng Professor, Tsinghua University]:
“In making the gearbox, we couldn’t find a device to reduce weight, so we had to make one ourselves. We searched a lot of shops to find the parts to put it together. We ended up taking parts from toys and industrial electric motors. We also pulled some parts out of vehicles. We had some technical problems."
清華大學教授高雲峰說：
「製作變速箱時，我們無法找到可以減輕重量的裝置，所以我們不得不自己做一個。我們在很多商店尋找零件，想把它組裝起來。最後，我們是拆用玩具和工業電機上的零件。我們也拆一些汽車零件來用。我們有一些技術問題。」
The only snag to this ingenious invention is that it takes the cell phone motor more than two hours to lift a fridge just one meter off the ground.
這個巧妙發明唯一的意外障礙，是手機馬達得花超過兩個小時才能僅僅讓冰箱離地一米。
Not perturbed by speed though, Gao plans to patent his idea and develop a gearbox that will magnify the power collected from a wind turbine in a light breeze.
然而速度不是重點，高教授計劃將他的想法申請專利，並且開發一種變速箱，可以把一個微風風力發電機的功率放大。
He’s hoping that process won’t be as long-winded.
他希望這一計畫進度不要拖太久。
本則影音新聞出處：新唐人電視台英語新聞
http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/ns_life/2011-01-19/292625093444.html
本專欄由前衛英語David Lee主編 www.davidlee.url.tw
【佳句精選】
How do you lift a refrigerator using a cell phone?
您要如何用手機吊起一座冰箱呢？
【佳句精選】
In just two weeks, the team came up with a solution.
就在兩週內，團隊想出了解決方法。
