时间:2018-12-24 作者:英语课 分类:Scientific American(九)月


英语课

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky. Got a minute?


Baseball players sometimes cheat! One popular method has been to cork 1 the bat. You drill out some of the core of the bat, and replace the heavy wood with light cork. You can then swing the lighter 2 bat faster, and thus hit the ball further.


Of course, most ballplayers aren't physicists 3, so they don't realize that by making the bat lighter, they're reducing the collision efficiency. You swing faster, but get a limper contact. In theory, anyway.


So physicists led by the University of Illinois’s Alan Nathan tested corked 4 bats under controlled conditions. The doctored lumber 5 actually usually causes the ball to go less far, they found. The work appears in the online forum 6 the Physics arXiv. So for a power hitter to cork his bat is a bad idea.


But the researchers note that, ironically, a corked bat might result in more homers from non-homer hitters. Who can watch a pitch slightly longer before swinging, make up for the lost time with a faster swing and achieve more solid contact more often. So a corked bat is a bad idea for Sammy Sosa, who got caught using one. But a good idea for, say, Bucky Dent 7.


Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky.

 



1 cork
n.软木,软木塞
  • We heard the pop of a cork.我们听见瓶塞砰的一声打开。
  • Cork is a very buoyant material.软木是极易浮起的材料。
2 lighter
n.打火机,点火器;驳船;v.用驳船运送;light的比较级
  • The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色,色调明朗了一些。
  • The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。
3 physicists
物理学家( physicist的名词复数 )
  • For many particle physicists, however, it was a year of frustration. 对于许多粒子物理学家来说,这是受挫折的一年。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技
  • Physicists seek rules or patterns to provide a framework. 物理学家寻求用法则或图式来构成一个框架。
4 corked
adj.带木塞气味的,塞着瓶塞的v.用瓶塞塞住( cork的过去式 )
  • Our army completely surrounded and corked up the enemy stronghold. 我军把敌人的堡垒完全包围并封锁起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He kept his emotions corked up inside him. 他把感情深藏于内心。 来自《简明英汉词典》
5 lumber
n.木材,木料;v.以破旧东西堆满;伐木;笨重移动
  • The truck was sent to carry lumber.卡车被派出去运木材。
  • They slapped together a cabin out of old lumber.他们利用旧木料草草地盖起了一间小屋。
6 forum
n.论坛,讨论会
  • They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
  • The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。
7 dent
n.凹痕,凹坑;初步进展
  • I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事,但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
  • That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大,用不着把它锤平。
学英语单词
almecillin
antecedent cause
areal
BACTEC
beef loin
Blakemore
body-in
burden error of PT
calbe making machinery
Calophanoides buxifolia
carbonated fruit beverage
Cauchy law of similarity
cerebellic
chlorbetamide
cloth opening
cogent reason
colind
creft
cross-rhythm
ctenodactylid
Dianthus elatus
direct debiting
direct distributor
division artillery
downwell
e'space
eelgrass families
electricians level
electronic distributor tester
encephalic
epitarsus
ESRIN
etymologers
expectees
fam-bam
farmergeneral
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
frenhofer
fuel sphere
graduated hopper-charging
graham cracker
hardness sample
harshens
hatch boundaries
have need to do sth
high-temper steel
International Working man's Association
ion blemish
Jersey elm
Khz
knackery
lifejacket for children
loose transition state
loxoribine
Magnolia denudata Desr.
Makri
mayall
medullary plate (or neural plate)
member of the Royal Institution of Navigation
momobloc casting
monster cock
neutral lining
new red sand-stone
nonrepliers
Nāqah, Qarārat an
pain units
pentalinguals
picabo
piperidinoethyl-selenide
positioning of wagon at loading or discharge points
pre impregnated material
pulley weights
reformatters
respass
rhetorical devices
ribbon antenna
route indicator lever
samesex
scandalum magnatum
Sheep-market
show signs of wear
simultaneous temperature
skeletopy
smf
SPO2
steidels
sterile pinnule
superacent anomaly
Suxamidofyllinum
Swanscombe
taphrina coryli nishida
tennille
test specification
tonsilotomes
traffic lane
triple release
unit heater with axial fan
Volstead, Andrew Joseph
walk off with sth
walmarts
weld bead
with a rod of iron