《那些古怪又让人忧心的问题》第128期:汇聚闪电(2)

Trevor's lightning

特雷弗的闪电

In Trevor's scenario, all the lightning in the world hits in one place. This would make power generation a lot more attractive!

在特雷弗设想的场景中，全世界所有的闪电都集中到了一个地方，这么看起来靠雷击发电的想法一下子就变得很有吸引力了哎！

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.

之前说到闪电“都发生在一个地方”，那么我们不妨假设所有的雷击都紧紧地并排排列。一次雷击的主闪电通道——携带电流的那一部分——的直径约为1厘米。我们假想中的闪电束包含了约100万个独立的闪电，这意味闪电束的直径约有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.

每个科学作家都总是喜欢把所有东西和扔在广岛上空的原子弹相比较，4那么我们也拿原子弹来作为参照物：我们的闪电束将会向空气和地面注入差不多相当于两颗原子弹爆炸产生的能量。

Or, to put it another way, it could support the US's electricity consumption . . . for five minutes.

更直观地来说，产生的电力足以驱动一台游戏主机加等离子电视运行几百万年，或者支撑全美的电力消耗——5分钟。

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.

闪电本身的宽度不会大于篮球场中圈的宽度，但由此产生的大坑将和整个篮球场不相上下。

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.

在闪电束中，空气被电离成具有极高能量的等离子体，闪电产生的光和热会瞬间引燃几千米范围内的地面，产生的冲击波会将附近地区夷为平地。总的来说，把它和原子弹相比并不牵强。

Could we protect ourselves?

我们能保护自己吗？