艾萨克·牛顿：最后的魔术师（2013）

他的妈妈故意要他管理家里的产业，
His mother intended he apply himself to the management of the estate
但是他的天份岂能如何浪费
but his genius could not brook such an employment.
牛顿是你所能想像得到，最糟糕的农场经营者，
Newton was the most useless manager of a farm you can possibly imagine,
根据他妈妈的弟弟所说的，牛顿就是够优秀，
and it was his mother’s brother who suggested that Newton was too good,
够天赋到逃不掉他的天命，
too talented to be kept away from his destiny,
进到大学读书
which was university.
艾萨克马上就前往剑桥的三一学院就读
Isaac was soon packed off to Trinity College, Cambridge.
他对自然哲学感到兴趣，
He was drawn to natural philosophy,
研究真实的世界，
the study of the physical world,
现在称之为科学
what we now call science.
在十七世纪末，牛顿还是学生的年代，
In the late 17th century, when Newton was a student,
科学根本还没受到任何青睐
science was not held in any particular esteem at all.
没有科学的学位，没有科学的专业
There was no degree in science, there was no career in science.
科学完全还没产出…
Science hadn’t so far produced…
…任何有用的成果
..any useful results.
牛顿的教授传授亚里斯多德有关
Newton’s professors taught Aristotle’s concept
重力和浮力的概念
of gravity and levity.
他们会说苹果有某种重力
You know, they would’ve said an apple has some gravity.
我们怎麽会知道呢？因为它有向下掉的趋势
And how do we know? Because it has a tendency to fall down.
他们会说火和烟有浮力
They would’ve said fire and smoke have levity
因为他们会上升到高空
because they rise to the heavens.
这就是亚里斯多德教他们的东西
That’s what Aristotle taught them.
但牛顿准备好要反驳
But Newton was ready to reject 2,000 years
二千年的科学正统
of scientific orthodoxy.
他深思并确信他们写的东西是错的
He thought and believed that what other people wrote was wrong.
如同他所确信的一样，即使在那麽年轻的阶段－
It’s as if he believed, even at this early period –
只有21、22岁－
he’s 21, 22 –
他就是注定要重整自然哲学的那个人
that he was destined to be the person to reform natural philosophy.
牛顿只相信
Newton only believed
他自己能证明出来的东西
what he could prove himself.
自然哲学不应该用形而上的哲学观点来发现的
Natural philosophy should not be founded on metaphysical opinions.
它的结论只能从实验证明出来
Its conclusions can only be proved by experiment.
他想知道所有的事
He wanted to know everything.
他有著永不满足的好奇心
He had an insatiable curiosity.
他被这个有趣的、複杂的世界深深吸引
He was handed this interesting, complicated world
他几乎可以看得出机关所在
and he could almost see the gears turning
他要把它们理解出来
and he wanted to figure them out.
166♥4♥年，
By 166♥4♥,
年仅二十一岁，
aged only 21,
牛顿替自己想出的课题－
Newton devised a curriculum for himself –
让他馀生著迷不已的四十五个主题
45 topics that obsessed him for the rest of his life.
他称之为
He called them
「确定的哲学问题」
“Certain Philosophical Questions”.
时间与永恆，
Of time and eternity,
太阳、行星和彗星，
of the sun and planets and comets,
空气，
of air,
流星，
of meteors,
原子、密度，
of atoms, of density,
真空，
of vacuum,
反射，
of reflection,
磁力，
of attraction – magnetical,
静电力，
of attraction – electrical,
光，
of light,
颜色，冷热，
of colours, of heat and cold,
重力和浮力，
of gravity and levity,
视觉…
of vision…
牛顿对视觉和光的奥秘特别感到兴趣
Newton was obsessed by the mysteries of vision and light.
他花极长的时间
He went to extraordinary lengths
检查眼睛如何运作的机械原理
to examine the mechanics of how the eye works.
我用我的右眼注视映在玻璃上的太阳，
I looked upon the sun in a looking glass with my right eye,
然后把眼睛转向房♥间里较暗的角落里，眨眼进行
and then turned my eyes into a darker corner of my chamber and winked
观察刚刚制♥造♥出来的影像和包围圆圈周围的颜色
to observe the impression made and the circles of colours which encompassed it
看它们怎麽渐渐褪色，最后消失
and how they decayed and at last vanished.
他想要设法找出
He’s trying to work out
我们在看东西，有多少是根据我们的意愿，也就是我们的心灵
how much of what we see is due to the will, so to our mind,
和有多少是根据外在世界的事物所影响的
and how much of it is due to what there is in the outside world.
经过几个小时，我把自己的眼睛弄到
In a few hours time, I had brought my eyes to such a pass
只能看到发光的东西
that I could look upon no bright object.
我只能看得到眼前的太阳
I only saw the sun before me!
我不能写，也不能读
I could neither write nor read.
为了恢复视力，
To recover the use of my eyes,
我整整把自己锁在黑暗的房♥间里三天
I shut myself up in my darkened chamber for three days.
DOOR CLOSES & LOCKS
牛顿准备冒著失明的危险
Newton was prepared to risk blindness
也要确认他的发现是正确无误的
to ensure his findings were correct.
在他的笔记里，有些令人讶异的插图
In his notebooks, there are some wonderful diagrams
他用一种状似现在牙籤的长针，
of him putting a bodkin, which is a long toothpick,
儘量刺进到他的眼睛的正后方
as close to the back of his eye as he could get.
在我的眼球和骨头之间，
Betwixt my eye and the bone,
儘量靠近我的眼球的正后方
as near to the back of my eye as I could,
并且用长针的末端压一压，
and pressing it with the end of the bodkin,
这样就出现了几圈周围明亮色彩的暗圈
there appeared several bright dark circles of colours.
他所做的眼睛实验，是想要理解
What he’s doing with the eye experiments, he’s trying to work out
对视觉的贡献，有多少是出自于想像，
how much the imagination, what he calls the will or the fancy,
他称之为意志或幻想
contributes towards vision.
牛顿的数学化的心灵
Newton’s mathematical mind
被驱使到找寻更困难的答案
was driven to search for bigger answers
再到最困难的答案
to ever bigger questions.
1665年，鼠疫爆发，横扫整个英国，
In 1665, an outbreak of bubonic plague swept through England,
十万人罹难
killing 100,000.
牛顿回到孩提时代的家－伍尔索普庄园避难
Newton took refuge in his childhood home, Woolsthorpe Manor.
比以往更封闭隔绝，
More isolated than ever,
他持续思考著他魂萦梦牵的问题
he continued his compulsive questioning.
牛顿发觉有些特定的问题，
Newton realised there were certain problems,
大部分的运动和自♥由♥落体
mostly motion and falling objects,
你就是没办法用传统的数学来解这些问题
that you just couldn’t solve with the classical mathematics.
他发明了一些工具来计算实际上任意的变化率…
He invented the means to compute virtually any rate of change…
…月球绕著地球的轨迹…
..the moon’s path around the earth…
…贝壳生长的螺旋线…
..the growth pattern of a spiral shell…
…从大砲发射砲弹的弹道轨迹
..the trajectory of a projectile fired from a cannon.
一种新型态的数学诞生了
A new type of mathematics was born.
微积分
Calculus.
微积分现在运用在
Calculus is used today
数学化的科学和工程的每一分支之中
in every branch of the mathematical sciences and engineering.
每当你有变化量－
Every time you have a changing quantity –
举例来话，汽车在加速，
say, for example, the acceleration on a car,
要注入多少汽油到引擎里－
how much petrol is being injected into the engine –
这里头有变化量
there’s a changing quantity there
所以你要用到微积分
so you have to use calculus.
不靠任何人一丁点的帮忙和指导，
Without the least help or instruction from any person,
他在24岁以前，就为自己的全部发现
he laid the foundation of all his discoveries
奠下基础
before he was 24 years old.
牛顿现在是世界上最顶尖的数学家
Newton was now the world’s leading mathematician
但没有人知道
but no-one else knew it.
他坐拥自己最伟大的发明
He kept his great inventions to himself.
他反而去进行了全新系列的实验，
Instead he started an entirely new set of experiments,
这一次…
this time…
…是光
..with light.
1665年八月，
In August, 1665,
艾萨克爵士在斯陶尔布里奇的市集里买♥♥了一个三稜镜
Sir Isaac bought at Stourbridge Fair a prism
想办法进行在笛卡尔书里关于颜色的实验，
to try some experiments on Descartes’ book of colours,
他回到家，在窗户的百叶窗上鑽了个小洞
and when he came home, he made a small hole in the window shutters
让房♥间暗下来
and darkened the room.
…著名的颜色现象…
..the celebrated phenomena of colours…
把我的房♥间弄暗一点
Having darkened my chamber
在我的窗帘上挖个小洞
and made a hole in my window shuts
让适量的阳光射进来
to let in a convenient quantity of the sun’s light,
我在它射进来之处放了三稜镜
I placed my prism at its entrance
使阳光被折射到对面的牆上
that it might be refracted to the opposite wall.
这是件令人愉悦的消遣
It was a very pleasing divertissement
看著鲜豔光亮的五光十射