万物简史 第62期:事物的测定(20)

With Mason refusing to survey the mountain, thejob fell to Maskelyne. So for four months in thesummer of 1774, Maskelyne lived in a tent in aremote Scottish glen and spent his days directing ateam of surveyors, who took hundreds ofmeasurements from every possible position. To findthe mass of the mountain from all these numbersrequired a great deal of tedious calculating, forwhich a mathematician named Charles Hutton wasengaged.

由于梅森不愿意测量那座山，这个工作落在了马斯基林身上。1774年夏天，有4个月时间，马斯基林在一个遥远的苏格兰峡谷的帐篷里指挥一组测量员。他们从每个可能的位置作了数百次测量。要从这么一大堆的数据中得出那座大山的质量，需要进行大量而又枯燥的计算。承担这项工作的是一位名叫查尔斯·赫顿的数学家。

The surveyors had covered a map with scores of figures, each marking an elevation at somepoint on or around the mountain. It was essentially just a confusing mass of numbers, butHutton noticed that if he used a pencil to connect points of equal height, it all became muchmore orderly. Indeed, one could instantly get a sense of the overall shape and slope of themountain. He had invented contour lines.

测量员们在地图上写满了几十个数据，每一个都表示山上或山边某个位置的高度。这些数字真是又多又乱。但是，赫顿注意到，只要用铅笔把高度相等的点连起来，一切就显得很有次序了。实际上，你马上可以知道这座山的整体形状和坡度。于是，他发明了等高线。

Extrapolating from his Schiehallion measurements, Hutton calculated the mass of the Earth at5,000 million million tons, from which could reasonably be deduced the masses of all the othermajor bodies in the solar system, including the Sun. So from this one experiment we learnedthe masses of the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, the other planets and their moons, and gotcontour lines into the bargain—not bad for a summer's work.

根据斯希哈林山的测量结果，赫顿计算出地球的质量为5000万亿吨。在此基础上，可以推算出太阳系里包括太阳在内的所有主要天体的质量。因此，我们从这一次实验知道了地球、太阳、月球和其他行星及其卫星的质量，另外还发明了等高线——这一个夏天的收获真是不小。