正文翻譯

What are the greatest examples of the butterfly effect / chaos theory in history?

歷史上蝴蝶效應(yīng)/混沌理論最偉大的例子是什么？

評(píng)論翻譯

Thiago Frias
Say friend, did you know that the US Standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches.
That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?
Because that's the way they built them in England, and the US railroads were built by English expatriates.
I see, but why did the English build them like that?
Because the first railway lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
Well, why did they use that gauge in England?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Okay! Why did their wagons use that odd wheel spacing?
Because, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads. Because that's the spacing of the old wheel ruts.
So who built these old rutted roads?
The first long distance roads in Europe were built by Imperial Rome for the benefit of their legions. The Roman roads have been used ever since.
And the ruts?

朋友，你知道美國標(biāo)準(zhǔn)鐵路軌距（鐵軌之間的距離）是4英尺8.5英寸嗎？
這是一個(gè)非常奇怪的數(shù)字。為什么會(huì)使用這種軌距？
因?yàn)槟鞘撬麄冊(cè)谟ㄔ扈F路的方式，而美國的鐵路是由英國僑民建造的。
我明白了，但為什么英國人要這樣建造鐵路呢？
因?yàn)榈谝粭l鐵路線是由建造鐵路之前的有軌電車的人建造的，他們用的就是這種軌距。
那么，為什么他們?cè)谟褂眠@種軌距？
因?yàn)榻ㄔ煊熊夒娷嚨娜耸褂昧伺c建造馬車相同的夾具和工具，而馬車也使用了這種輪距。
好吧! 為什么他們的馬車使用那種奇怪的輪距？
因?yàn)?，如果他們?cè)噲D使用任何其他的間距，在一些古老的長距離道路上，馬車車輪會(huì)斷裂。因?yàn)槟鞘枪爬宪囕嗆囖H的間距。
那么，是誰建造了這些古老的車轍路呢？
歐洲最早的長距離道路是由羅馬帝國為其軍團(tuán)的利益而修建的。羅馬的道路一直沿用至今。
那么這些車轍呢？

The original ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagons, were first made by the wheels of Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for or by Imperial Rome they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
Thus, we have the answer to the original question. The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman army war chariot.
And the motto of the story is Specifications and bureaucracies live forever.
So, the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right. Because the Imperial Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the back-ends of two war-horses.
So, just what does this have to do with the exploration of space?

最初的車轍是由羅馬戰(zhàn)車的車輪造成的，其他人因?yàn)楹ε赂銐牧怂麄兊鸟R車而不得不配合這些車轍造自己的輪距。由于戰(zhàn)車是為羅馬帝國制造或是由羅馬帝國制造的，因此它們?cè)谲囕嗛g距方面都是相似的。
這樣，我們就有了對(duì)最初問題的答案。美國的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)鐵路軌距為4英尺8.5英寸，來自于羅馬帝國軍隊(duì)?wèi)?zhàn)車的原始規(guī)格。
這個(gè)故事的啟示是：規(guī)格和官僚主義永遠(yuǎn)存在。
因此，當(dāng)你下次接到一個(gè)規(guī)格并想知道是什么馬屁股想出來的時(shí)候，你可能是完全正確的。因?yàn)榱_馬帝國戰(zhàn)車的寬度剛好可以容納兩匹戰(zhàn)馬的后端。
那么，這與太空探索有什么關(guān)系呢？
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明出處

Well, there's an interesting extension of the story about railroad gauge and horses' behinds. When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on the launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are the solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at a factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.
The railroad from the factory runs through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than a railroad track, and the railroad track is about as wide as two horses' behinds.
So a major design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was originally determined by the width of a horse's ass.

好吧，關(guān)于鐵路軌距和馬屁股的故事還有一個(gè)有趣的延伸。當(dāng)我們看到一架航天飛機(jī)停在發(fā)射臺(tái)上時(shí)，主燃料箱兩側(cè)附有兩枚大型助推火箭。這些是固體火箭助推器，或稱SRBs。SRB是由硫基橡膠化學(xué)公司在猶他州的一家工廠制造的。設(shè)計(jì)SRB的工程師們可能更希望把它們做得更胖一些，但SRB必須用火車從工廠運(yùn)到發(fā)射場。
從工廠出發(fā)的鐵路要穿過山區(qū)的隧道。SRB必須適合通過該隧道。隧道比鐵軌略寬，而鐵軌大約有兩匹馬的屁股那么寬。
因此，可以說是世界上最先進(jìn)的運(yùn)輸系統(tǒng)的一個(gè)主要設(shè)計(jì)特點(diǎn)最初是由馬屁股的寬度決定的。

Don Johnson
I am sorry to have to down vote. This is a great story but unfortunately it has been debunked several times; it’s not true. See Snopes: Railroad Gauges and Roman Chariots

很抱歉不得不給你點(diǎn)個(gè)踩。這是一個(gè)很棒的故事，但不幸的是，它已被揭穿多次；這不是事實(shí)。參見 Snopes的這篇文章：鐵路軌距和羅馬戰(zhàn)車

Allen Lobo
The role that this beautiful, virtually unknown and completely innocent woman would have in putting into motion the two World Wars of the 20th century.
This is Sophie Chotek. Duchess of Hohenberg.
And I bet that virtually none of you has ever heard of her.
She was the woman that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, fell in love with and then married.
So what?
She wasn’t royalty. A mere Duchess.
Which meant that in the unbelievably snobbish norms of the day, even the future monarch of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, could not have her, his own wife, accompany him in official royal ceremonies. And he hated that. Can you blame him?
The Archduke was an autocrat, but he had one redeeming quality— he loved his wife deeply.
There was but one exception to that stupid rule. Which is that she could be by his side in public while he was acting in his military capacity as Inspector-General of the Austro-Hungarian Army.
Which was the main reason why the Archduke decided to go inspect the army in Bosnia (an entirely unnecessary and optional choice), so that his wife could ride by his side in public.

這位美麗的、幾乎不為人知的、完全是無辜的女人在推動(dòng)20世紀(jì)的兩次世界大戰(zhàn)方面所起的作用。
這就是蘇菲-喬特克。霍恩堡公爵夫人。
我敢打賭，你們中幾乎沒有人聽說過她。
她是奧匈帝國的繼承人、奧地利大公斐迪南大公愛上并迎娶了的女人。
所以呢？那又怎樣？
她并不是皇室成員。僅僅是一位公爵夫人。
這意味著在當(dāng)時(shí)令人難以置信的勢(shì)利規(guī)范中，即使是奧匈帝國未來的君主，也不能讓她--他自己的妻子--陪同他參加正式的皇家儀式。而他討厭這種情況。你能怪他嗎？
大公是一個(gè)獨(dú)裁者，但他有一個(gè)可取之處——他深愛著他的妻子。
這個(gè)愚蠢的規(guī)則只有一個(gè)例外。那就是當(dāng)他以奧匈帝國軍隊(duì)監(jiān)察長的軍事身份行事時(shí)，她可以在公開場合出現(xiàn)在他身邊。
這就是大公決定去波斯尼亞視察軍隊(duì)的主要原因（這是一個(gè)完全沒有必要、可有可無的選擇），只是這樣他的妻子就可以在公開場合坐在他身邊。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明出處

And he rode quite foolishly in an open car so that everyone could see the two of them together.
And he then got assassinated by a Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo Princip who literally ran up to the open-top car and shot both of them at point blank range, killing them instantly.
Austria demanded an unconditional apology from Serbia and was determined to humiliate her.
Serbia considered the assassination to be awful, but had no real official hand in it. So she refused to apologize.
Austria then declared war on Serbia.
Russia as Serbia’s biggest ally, then declared war on Austria.
Germany then as Austria’s ally declared war on Russia.
France and Great Britain then as Russia’s allies declared war on Germany.
It is imperative to note here that except for Austria declaring war on tiny Serbia (which she never imagined would spiral completely out of hand in such spectacular fashion!)…

而且他相當(dāng)愚蠢地坐在一輛敞篷車上，以便所有人都能看到他們兩個(gè)人在一起。
然后他被一個(gè)塞爾維亞民族主義者加夫里洛-普林西比暗殺了，他沖到敞篷車前，近距離射殺了他們兩個(gè)，雙雙當(dāng)場斃命。
奧地利要求塞爾維亞無條件道歉，并決心羞辱她。
塞爾維亞認(rèn)為這次暗殺是可怕的，但官方確實(shí)沒有參與其中。所以她拒絕道歉。
奧地利于是向塞爾維亞宣戰(zhàn)。
俄羅斯作為塞爾維亞最大的盟友，隨后向奧地利宣戰(zhàn)。
德國隨后作為奧地利的盟友向俄羅斯宣戰(zhàn)。
法國和英國隨后作為俄羅斯的盟友向德國宣戰(zhàn)。
在此必須指出，除了奧地利對(duì)小小的塞爾維亞宣戰(zhàn)（她從未想到會(huì)以如此壯觀的方式完全失控?。?.....

All of these other declarations of war between these nations weren't “choices” — they were bound by security treaties to come to the rescue of each other in the event of an aggression against their allies.
Great Britain, France and Russia on the one hand as the Triple Entente, Germany and Austria-Hungary on the other as the Central Powers.
Talk about a chain reaction!
And then ladies and gentlemen, you had World War 1.
Followed by the collapse of the German economy. (No, the Treaty of Versailles was not as punitive as people think.)
The collapse of the German economy brought that lovely SOB, Adolf Hitler to power.
And the rest as they say, is history.
Arguably one of the greatest instances of the “butterfly effect” in all of history. Try topping that.
And it all started with the marriage of an emperor to a relative commoner.
For the sake of love.

所有這些國家之間的其他宣戰(zhàn)都不是可以自己控制的"選擇"--他們受到安全條約的約束，在發(fā)生對(duì)其盟友的侵略時(shí)，保證會(huì)互相救援。
英國、法國和俄羅斯一方面作為協(xié)約國，另一方面德國和奧匈帝國作為同盟國。
什么叫連鎖反應(yīng)啊!
然后，女士們、先生們，我們來到了第一次世界大戰(zhàn)。
緊接著是德國經(jīng)濟(jì)的崩潰。(不，《凡爾賽條約》并不像人們想象的那樣具有懲罰性）。
德國經(jīng)濟(jì)的崩潰使那個(gè)“可愛的”混蛋阿道夫-希特勒上臺(tái)。
正如他們所說，剩下的就是歷史了。
可以說，這是歷史上"蝴蝶效應(yīng)"的最大實(shí)例之一。試著去超越它。
而這一切都始于一個(gè)皇帝與一個(gè)相對(duì)平民的婚姻。
為了愛的緣故。