《那些古怪又讓人憂心的問題》第128期:匯聚閃電(2)
Trevor's lightning
In Trevor's scenario, all the lightning in the world hits in one place. This would make power generation a lot more attractive!
在特雷弗設想的場景中，全世界所有的閃電都集中到了一個地方，這麼看起來靠雷擊發電的想法一下子就變得很有吸引力了哎！By “happened in the same place,” let's assume the lightning bolts all come down in parallel, right up against each other. The main channel of a lightning bolt-the part that's carrying current-is about a centimeter or two in diameter. Our bundle contains about a million separate bolts, which means it will be about 6 meters in diameter.
之前說到閃電“都發生在一個地方”，那麼我們不妨假設所有的雷擊都緊緊地並排排列。一次雷擊的主閃電通道——攜帶電流的那一部分——的直徑約爲1釐米。我們假想中的閃電束包含了約100萬個獨立的閃電，這意味閃電束的直徑約有6米。
Every science writer always compares everything to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima,4 so we may as well get that out of the way: The lightning bolt would deliver about two atomic bombs' worth of energy to the air and ground. From a more practical standpoint, this is enough electricity to power a game console and plasma TV for several million years.
每個科學作家都總是喜歡把所有東西和扔在廣島上空的原子彈相比較，4那麼我們也拿原子彈來作爲參照物：我們的閃電束將會向空氣和地面注入差不多相當於兩顆原子彈爆炸產生的能量。Or, to put it another way, it could support the US's electricity consumption . . . for five minutes.
更直觀地來說，產生的電力足以驅動一臺遊戲主機加等離子電視運行幾百萬年，或者支撐全美的電力消耗——5分鐘。The bolt itself would be only as narrow as the center circle of a basketball court, but it would leave a crater the size of the entire court.
閃電本身的寬度不會大於籃球場中圈的寬度，但由此產生的大坑將和整個籃球場不相上下。Within the bolt, the air would turn to high-energy plasma. The light and heat from the bolt would spontaneously ignite surfaces for miles around. The shockwave would flatten trees and demolish buildings. All in all, the Hiroshima comparison is not far off.
在閃電束中，空氣被電離成具有極高能量的等離子體，閃電產生的光和熱會瞬間引燃幾千米範圍內的地面，產生的衝擊波會將附近地區夷爲平地。總的來說，把它和原子彈相比並不牽強。Could we protect ourselves?
我們能保護自己嗎？
