Waves
原文
Lesson 40
Waves
What false impression does an ocean wave convey to the observer?
Waves are the children of the struggle between ocean and atmosphere, the ongoing signatures of infinity.
Rays from the sun excite and energize the atmosphere of the earth, awakening it to flow, to movement, to rhythm, to life.
The wind then speaks the message of the sun to the sea
and the sea transmits it on through waves--an ancient, exquisite powerful message.
These ocean waves are among the earth's most complicated natural phenomena.
The basic features include a crest (the highest point of the wave),
a trough (the lowest point), a height (the vertical distance from the trough to the crest),
a wave length (the horizontal distance between two wave crests),
and a period (which is the time it takes awave crest to travel one wave length).
Although an ocean wave gives the impression of a wall of water moving in your direction,
in actuality waves move through the water leaving the water about where it was.
If the water was moving with the wave,
the ocean and everything on it would be racing in to the shore with obviously catastrophic results.
An ocean wave passing through deep water causes a particle on the surface to move in a roughly circular orbit,
drawing the particle first towards the advancing wave, then up into the wave,
then forward with it and then--as the wave leaves the particles behind--back to its starting point again.
From both maturity to death, a wave is subject to the same laws as any other 'living' thing.
For a time it assumes a miraculous individuality that, in the end, is reabsorbed into the great ocean of life.
The undulating waves of the open sea are generated by three natural causes:
wind, earth movements or tremors, and the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun.
Once waves have been generated,
gravity is the force that drives them in a continual attempt to restore the ocean surface to a flat plain.
译文
第40课
波浪
海浪会给观察者留下什么样的错误印象呢?
海浪是海洋与大气相互作用的产物,是永恒不息的印记。
太阳的光线激发并赋予地球大气层能量,使其开始流动、运动、产生节奏,并充满生机。
然后,风将太阳的信息传递给了大海。
海水通过海浪将这一信息传递出去——一条古老而精美的、充满力量的信息。
这些海浪是地球上最复杂的自然现象之一。
基本特征包括波峰(即波浪的最高点)。
波谷(即最低点),波高(即从波谷到波峰的垂直距离),
波长(即两个波峰之间的水平距离)
以及周期(即波峰传播一个波长所需的时间)。
虽然海浪看起来像是一堵朝你方向涌来的水墙,
实际上,波浪在水中传播时,水本身基本停留在原处。
如果水是随着波浪一起运动的……
海洋以及其中的一切都会被冲向海岸,这显然会造成灾难性的后果。
当海浪穿过深水区域时,水面上的一个颗粒会沿着近似圆形的轨道运动。
首先将粒子吸引向前进的波浪,然后使其向上融入到波浪中。
然后随波浪前进,最后——当波浪离开粒子后——粒子又回到起点。
从成熟到消亡,海浪也遵循着与其他'生命体'相同的规律。
在一段时间内,它展现出一种仿佛奇迹般的独特性;然而最终,这种独特性还是被重新融入了浩瀚的生命之海中。
开阔海域中那些起伏的波浪是由三种自然原因形成的:
风、地壳运动或震动,以及月球和太阳的引力。
一旦海浪被生成(或:波浪开始形成),
重力是驱动波浪的力量,它不断试图使海面恢复平坦。