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
after compass
air breaking
air range
ajay
attester
beist
by the agency of
calcium acrylate
camshaft annular combustion chamber
Cathy Come Home
cimepanol
combined industrial and agricultural value of output
commodity group
conservation laws
control resistor
controlled accounts
cranioplasty
crl
De Vries' theory
decision data
delaunay triangulation
dicyclopentadienyltitanium
direct current motor
direct tolerancing
double cleftlip
erymid
escort tanker
Every dog has its day
foofaraw
friction motion
furuncle of penis
GACF
greater pudendal lip
gunned ladle
heat-stabilized wood
Hellenisation
hertzian vibrator
heteroenoid system
hourcade
ichnofossil
Imlaystown
indanones
internal focusing telescope
internal trading
intra-annual
isolated reef
key system
khatris
kneading mixer
koro
labneh
lead - acid battery
lonchaea formosa
magillicudy
magnetic electric tachometer
magnetic grate
mahlke
manuelo
marine succession
metal-tank mercury-arc rectifier
multipartitioned blackboard
narrowbeam
near-nuclear state
nonappealing
normalizing condition
nuclear fusion device
op shops
ouinestrol
palladacycles
partner's salary
peanut thrips
perimetrist
pretensioning system
Proportion of Degree of Fault
radio pulse
Raniformes
reclassing
refractory powder
Regutol
rethinker
reverberatory wire net
right handed rotation
Rotaliaca
run off the tie
self-acting travel
semilegendary
split vision
square key
stewarts
sympathize
taper rolling machine
tera-joule
thalassogenetic
toilless
top of bole
tourain
tree-pusher
us tablespoon
virtual pitch circle
wieniawski
wind porch
with a heavy tread