诙谐的语言，生动的内容一分钟快速掌握科技最新动态

本期节目音频下载

Design Boosts Chances for Air-Powered Motorcycle

Die-hard advocates of alternate energy might fantasize about cars that could one day run on water. But scientists in India have gone a step further. They’ve mathematically modeled an engine that should allow a motorcycle to run on air—compressed air, that is. Their design is described in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy. [Bharat Raj Singh and Onkar Singh, Fd3dO]

大力提倡使用替代能源的人们可能在幻想着某一天汽车能够靠水力驱动，不过印度科学家可要更胜一筹——他们已经建立了一个空气（压缩空气）驱动摩托车的数学模型。他们的这项设计发表在《可再生与可持续能源》上。

The hunt is on for alternatives to fossil fuels. Internal combustion engines convert the energy in gasoline’s molecular bonds into motion. But what if there were another way to make engine parts move?

这项研究旨在寻找化石燃料的替代能源。内燃机的工作原理是将汽油中分子团的能量转化为动能。那如果有其他方法让发动机运转又会怎么样呢？

Scientists in India were thinking of a well-directed wind. And after crunching the numbers on pressure and flow, they’ve concluded that a tank of compressed air could generate enough power to run a motorcycle for up to 40 minutes. The air would spin a turbine, which would then get things rolling.

印度科学家们考虑到一种定向风力。于是在纠结了一大堆压力、流速之类的数字之后，他们终于总结出：一油箱的压缩空气能够产生足以让摩托车运转40分钟的能量。压缩空气促使涡轮机旋转，于是发动机转起来啦，车轮子也转起来啦~

Of course they’d need to design a tank that could store enough air to fuel a long haul. Current cylinders would need changing or charging after about 20 miles. Which would still cover a lot of commutes and trips to the grocery store.

当然啦，科学家们还需要设计出一个足够大的容器储存压缩空气以确保长时间的燃料供给。用现有的汽缸的话，在车辆行驶了20英里之后就需要更换或是加燃料，那司机们就要频繁地跑加“油”站了。

And you’d still need to get air in the tank in a green way. Maybe a solar-powered, geothermal, wind-driven compressor?

而且吧，要把空气压到罐子里也得很环保，要不试试太阳能的，地热的，风能的空气压缩机？

点击进入参与科学60秒>>> 

声明：音视频均来自互联网链接，仅供学习使用。本网站自身不存储、控制、修改被链接的内容。"沪江英语"高度重视知识产权保护。当如发现本网站发布的信息包含有侵犯其著作权的链接内容时，请联系我们，我们将依法采取措施移除相关内容或屏蔽相关链接。