EXPANDING EARTH
地球扩张
Q. How long would it take for people to notice their weight gain if the mean radius of the world expanded by 1cm every second? (Assuming the average composition of rock were maintained.)
Q．如果地球半径现在开始以每秒1厘米的速度扩大，要花多久人们才能意识到他们自己变重了？（假设岩石的平均构成不变。）
-Dennis O 8217;Donnell
——丹尼斯•奥唐奈
A. THE EARTH IS NOT, currently, expanding.
A．地球目前并不在扩张。
People have long suggested that it might be. Before the continential drift hypothesis was confirmed in the 1960s,1 people had noticed that the continents fit together. Various ideas were put forward to explain this, including the idea that the ocean basins were rifts that opened in the surface of a previously smooth Earth as it expanded. This theory was never very widespread,although it still periodically makes the rounds on YouTube.
一直有人主张说地球也许在扩张。在20世纪60年代1板块漂移学说被证实之前，人们就已经发现了不同大陆的海岸线能够互相吻合。于是人们想出很多个解释方法，其中有一个认为，地球本是一个十分光滑圆整的球，而海洋盆地则是地球不断扩张产生的裂缝。这个理论从未变得十分流行，但它的身影不时在YouTube上出现。
To avoid the problem of rifts in the ground, let 8217;s imagine all the matter in the Earth, from the crust to the core, starts expanding uniformly. To avoid another drain-the-oceans scenario, we 8217;ll assume the ocean expands, too.All human structures will stay.
为了避免出现大地裂痕，我们不妨假设地球上从地壳到地核的所有物质都会均匀扩张。为了不让之前发生的“榨干海洋”惨剧再度发生，我们假定海洋也会扩张。所有人类建筑都会保持原样。
t = 1 second
1秒后
As the Earth started expanding, you 8217;d feel a slight jolt, and might even lose your balance for a moment. This would be very brief. Since you 8217;re moving steadily upward at 1 cm/s, you woudn 8217;t feel any kind of ongoing acceleration. For the rest of the day, you wouldn 8217;t notice much of anything.
当地球刚开始扩张时，你可能会感觉到一些颤动，甚至会暂时失去平衡。不过别担心，这只会持续很短一段时间。因为你是以每秒1厘米的速度匀速上升，你不会感受到任何由此产生的加速度。在这一天剩下的时间里，你什么也不会注意到。
t = 1 day
1天后
After the first day, the Earth would have expanded by 864 meters.
1天后，地球已经变胖了864米。
Gravity would take a long time to increase noticeably. If you weighed 70 kil-ograms when the expansion started, you 8217;d weigh 70.01 at the end of the first day.
重力增长得非常慢。如果你在扩张伊始是70千克，那么第一天结束时你将是70.01千克。