The temperature of regular stuff is basically just a measurement of jiggliness of the atoms and molecules that make that stuff up.
普通物体的温度,从本质上来讲,就是组成该物质的原子和分子振动的剧烈程度。
More jiggling, higher temperature. Less jiggling, lower temperature.
震动越剧烈,温度就越高。震动越少,温度就越低。
Of course, when something's at a high temperature, it feels hot, and when something's at a low temperature, it feels cold. Right? Not exactly.
当然,当某物体温度高时,摸起来就很烫,当某物体温度低时,摸起来就是凉的。对吗?其实不是。
If you touch a piece of metal and a book that have been sitting in your fridge, the metal will feel much colder than the book -
如果你摸摸电冰箱里放着的一块金属和一本书,那么金属会比书更加冰凉——
Derek of Veritasium did a great video on this, but you really have to try it for yourself to believe it!
Veritasium的德雷克做过一期与此有关的很棒的视频,但是你一定要亲自尝试才会相信!
The metal and the book are honestly at the same temperature as measured by a thermometer, but the metal feels colder.
其实温度计测量到金属和书本的温度是一样的,但是金属感觉更冰冷。
This isn't just a trick of the mind, though - we experience the metal as "colder" than the book for a very physical reason:
这不仅是大脑的错觉—我们感受到金属比书“更加冰凉”是有物理原因的:
metal is a conductor, and paper is an insulator, so the energy, or jiggliness of the molecules in our hands,
金属是导体,纸是绝缘体,所以能量,或者说我们手上的物体分子振动的剧烈程度
is absorbed more quickly by the metal than by the book.
被金属吸收的速度比书更快。
Even though the book and the metal are at the same temperature, the metal causes the temperature of our hands to go down faster,
尽管书本和金属温度相同,但金属导致我们手中的温度下降更快,
and thus, we experience the metal as being colder - because the temperature of our hands is what we really feel.
因此,我们感觉到金属更冰冷——因为我们手掌表面的温度才是我们真正感觉到的。
It's like how, technically, a mercury thermometer really only measures its own temperature
这就像,严格地说,水银温度计仅仅反映水银表面温度而已
and you can only indirectly measure temperatures of other things by putting them in thermal contact with it.
并且你只能通过使温度计和物体发生热交换才能间接测量其他物体的温度。
Similarly, the thermoreceptive nerves in our skin can only directly measure the temperature of the skin itself and not of anything else.
同样,我们皮肤的热感受神经只能直接测量皮肤表面温度,其他的一概不行。
So when we touch something, we don't feel its temperature, but rather, we feel its effect on our skin:
所以当我们触摸某物时,我们无法感受到这个物体的温度,而是感受到该物体作用于我们皮肤上的温度:
that is, how much and how quickly it transfers thermal energy - that's the jiggling of molecules - to or from us.
即它向我们吸收或传递热能——也就是分子的震动——的多少和速度。
The capacity to transfer thermal energy is also why a blast of steam from your stovetop can feel so much hotter than a blast of hot dry air from your oven,
为什么灶台上的水蒸气给我们感觉比烤箱上升起的干燥热空气要烫得多,
even though the oven has a higher temperature: water vapor transfers more molecular jiggling to your skin than air by itself.
即便烤箱上热空气的温度更高:和空气本身相比,水蒸气会向你的皮肤转移更多的分子震动。
In fact, it's tempting to say that "hot" and "cold" are fundamentally different concepts from "high temperature" and "low temperature",
实际上,冷热和温度高低是两个截然不同概念,
even though we usually use the words interchangeably.
即便我们经常混用这些词。
"Hot" really means "it gives off a lot of energy" while high temperature means "it has a lot of energy" -
‘热’其实意味着‘它释放了很多能量’,而‘温度高’意味着‘它有很多能量’——
and as anyone who's tried fundraising knows, just because somebody has a lot of something, doesn't necessarily mean they give a lot of it away.
做过筹款项目的人都知道,有很多钱并不一定意味着会捐很多钱。