《那些古怪又讓人憂心的問題》第16期:勻速上升

RISING STEADILY

勻速上升

Q. If you suddenly began rising steadily at 1 foot per second, how exactly would you die? Would you freeze or suffocate first? Or something else?

Q．如果你突然開始以每秒1英尺（約30釐米）的速度上升，你會怎麼死？你會先被凍死還是因窒息而死？還是有其他死法？——麗貝卡?B

A. DID YOU BRING A COAT?

A．你帶大衣了嗎？

A foot per second isn't that fast; it's substantially slower than a typical elevator. It would take you 5-7 seconds to rise out of arm's reach, depending how tall your friends are.

每秒1英尺這個速度並不快——一部普通電梯的速度都比它快。你要花上5～7秒才能讓別人伸手夠不着，這取決於你的朋友們有多高。

After 30 seconds, you'd be 30 feet-9 meters-off the ground. If you skip ahead to page 168, you'll learn that this is your last chance for a friend to throw you a sandwich or water bottle or something.

30秒後，你的高度是30英尺（9米）。如果你把書翻到第172頁，你會發現這也是你的朋友能扔給你三明治或水瓶或其他什麼東西的最後機會了。

After a minute or two you would be above the trees. For the most part, you'd still be about as comfortable as you were on the ground. If it's a breezy day, it would probably get chillier thanks to the steadier wind above the tree line.

一兩分鐘後，你已經高於樹梢了。你感覺和地上差不多，都很舒服。如果當天有風，那麼樹梢上方更穩定的風很可能會讓你感覺有些冷。

After 10 minutes you would be above all but the tallest skyscrapers, and after 25 minutes you'd pass the spire of the Empire State building.

10分鐘後，你會超過大多數摩天大樓的高度。25分鐘後，你已經比帝國大廈的尖塔還高了。

The air at these heights is about 3 percent thinner than it is at the surface. Fortunately, your body handles air pressure changes like that all the ears might pop, but you wouldn't really notice anything else.

這裏的空氣要比在地面的稀薄3％左右。幸運的是，你的身體整天都在應付這樣的氣壓變化。你的耳朵可能會有點痛，但除此之外你不太會意識到其他東西。

Air pressure changes quickly with height. Surprisingly, when you're standing on the ground, air pressure changes measurably within just a few feet. If your phone has a barometer in it, as a lot of modern phones do, you can download an app and actually see the pressure difference between your head and your feet.

氣壓會隨着高度而大幅變化。不管你信不信，當你站在地面上時，1米之內的氣壓都能差出到可測量的程度。如果你的手機內置氣壓計——許多智能手機應該都內置了——你可以下載一個應用來測一下你腳附近的氣壓比頭附近高多少。

A foot per second is pretty close to a kilometer per hour, so after an hour, you'll be about a kilometer off the ground. At this point, you definitely start to get chilly. If you have a coat, you'll still be OK, though you might also notice the wind picking up.

每秒1英尺差不多就是每小時1千米，所以1個小時後，你差不多就是離地1千米了。此時此刻，你開始感覺有些冷了。如果你穿着一件外衣那還好，但你會感覺到風在變大。

At About two hours and two kilometers, the temperature would drop below freezing. The wind would also, most likely, be picking up. If you have any exposed skin, this is where frostbite would start to become a concern.

2個小時後，你已經達到了約2千米的高度，溫度也降到了冰點以下。風速很有可能在繼續增加，如果你有一部分皮膚暴露在外，那麼你就要開始擔心凍瘡了。

At this point, the air pressure would fall below what you'd experience in an airliner cabin,3 and the effects would start to become more significant. However, unless you had a warm coat, the temperature would be a bigger problem.

從此時起，氣壓將會降到比客機機艙還低的程度3，這時很多低壓後果會變得嚴重起來。但如果你沒有一件保暖的衣服，低溫纔是最大的問題。

Over the next two hours, the air would drop to below-zero temperatures.4,5 Assuming for a moment that you survived the oxygen deprivation, at some point you'd succumb to hypothermia. But when?

在接下來的2個小時內，空氣溫度也跌到0℃以下4，5。現在即使你沒有窒息而死，那麼用不了多久你就會被凍死。不過要等到什麼時候呢？

The scholarly authorities on freezing to death seem to be, unsurprisingly, Canadians. The most widely used model for human survival in cold air was developed by Peter Tikuisis and John Frim for the Defence and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine in Ontario.

在凍死這個話題上最有發言權的應該要數——毫不意外——加拿大人了。論及人類在寒冷空氣中的存活情況，最廣泛使用的模型正是由加拿大國防與民用環境醫學研究所的彼得?蒂克西斯和約翰?弗裏姆提出的。

According to their model, the main factor in the cause of death would be your clothes. If you were nude, you'd probably succumb to hypothermia somewhere around the five-hour mark, before your oxygen ran out.6 If you were bundled up, you may be frostbitten, but you would probably survive . . .

根據他們的模型，你的死因很大程度上取決於你穿的衣服。如果你赤身裸體，你會在第5個小時前後因低溫症而殞命，而此時你身體裏的氧氣還沒用盡呢。6如果你被溫暖的衣服裹得嚴嚴實實，你會有一些凍瘡，但應該還活得下去……

. . . long enough to reach the Death Zone.

……直到你來到死亡區。

Above 8000 meters-above the tops of all but the highest mountains-the oxygen content in the air is too low to support human life. Near this zone, you would experience a range of symptoms, possibly including confusion, dizziness, clumsiness, impaired vision, and nausea.

在8000米以上——地球上只有少數幾座山有這麼高——空氣中的氧氣含量不足以支持人類生存。在這個區域附近你會感受到許多不同的症狀，其中可能包括迷糊、眩暈、遲鈍、視力障礙和噁心。

As you approach the Death Zone, your blood oxygen content would plummet. Your veins are supposed to bring low-oxygen blood back to your lungs to be refilled with oxygen. But in the Death Zone, there's so little oxygen in the air that your veins lose oxygen to the air instead of gaining it.

當你向死亡區繼續靠近時，你血液中的氧氣含量開始大幅跳水。血管本應將低氧氣含量的血樣帶回肺中，然後補充新鮮氧氣。但在死亡區，空氣中的氧含量太少，以至於你血管中僅有的氧氣會往外跑而不是吸收氧氣。

The result would be a rapid loss of consciousness and death. This would happen around the seven-hour mark; the chances are very slim that you would make it to eight.

後果就是你會迅速喪失意識，然後死亡就會到來。這大概發生在第7個小時前後，你很難撐到第8個小時。

She died as she lived-rising at a foot per second. I mean, as she lived for the last few hours.

他生前和死後沒什麼區別，都在以每秒1英尺的速度上升。

And two million years later, your frozen body, still moving along steadily at a foot per second, would pass through the heliopause into interstellar space.

200萬年後，你那冰凍的屍體還在以每秒1英尺的速度運動，它將會穿過日球層頂（heliopause）進入星際空間。

Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto, died in 1997. A portion of his remains were placed on the New Horizons spacecraft, which will fly past Pluto and then continue out of the solar system.

發現冥王星的天文學家克萊德?湯博於1997年去世。他的一部分骨灰由“新地平線”號宇宙飛船搭載，飛船在飛越冥王星後將繼續向太陽系外進發。

It's true that your hypothetical foot-per-second trip would be cold, unpleasant, and rapidly fatal. But when the Sun becomes a red giant in four billion years and consumes the Earth, you and Clyde would be the only ones to escape.

的確，你那每秒1英尺的旅程又冷，又不舒服，死得也很快。但當太陽在40億年後變成紅巨星並將地球吞噬時，你和克萊德將會成爲唯一逃出去的人類。

So there's that.

所以，你死而無憾了。

1 It won't help you survive, but . . .

1． 雖然這些東西還是沒法讓你活下來，不過……

2 For this answer, I'm going to assume a typical atmosphere temperature profile. It can, of course, vary quite a bit.

2． 這篇文章中假設的是“典型”的大氣層溫度分佈，當然，具體情況差異會很大。

3 . . . which are typically kept pressurized at about 70 percent to 80 percent of sea level pressure, judging from the barometer in my phone.

3． 根據我手機中氣壓計的數據，客機機艙一般加壓到70％～80％的大氣壓。

4 Either unit.

4． 攝氏度和華氏度都行。

5 Not Kelvin, though.

5． 當然不能用開爾文。

6 And frankly, this “nude” scenario raises more questions than it answers.

6． 我想知道這個結果是怎麼通過實驗做出來的……

Q. Given humanity's current knowledge and capabilities, is it possible to build a new star?

Q．以人類現有的知識和能力，有沒有可能造出一顆恆星來？——傑夫?戈登

Q. What sort of logistic anomalies would you encounter in trying to raise an army of apes?

Q．如果試圖招募一支黑猩猩軍隊，你會遇上什麼後勤難題？——凱文

Q. If people had wheels and could fly, how would we differentiate them from airplanes?

Q．如果人類長出了輪子並且能在空中飛翔，那麼要怎麼把他們和飛機區分開來？——匿名提問者