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美国斯坦福大学和亚拉巴马国家航空和航天局马歇尔空间飞行中心的物理学家及工程师们已经制成了世界上最圆的球——和乒乓球大小相仿的石英球,其圆度精度达到百万分之一英寸,即误差小于0.025μm。这并非是炫耀机加工能力,而是为了装配异常灵敏的陀螺仪。据报导,八十年代末,载有这种精密陀螺仪的相对论验证卫星将由航天飞机送入轨道,再次验证广义相对论。几十年来的历史发展证明,狭义相对论大大推动了科学的前进,成为现代物理学的一块坚固基石。广义相对论的遭遇却并非如此一帆风顺,虽然
Physicists and engineers at Stanford and the Marshall Space Flight Center at NASA’s Alabama have produced the world’s tallest ball - a quartz ball of comparable size to a ping pong ball, with roundness accuracy of 100 One thousandth of an inch, that is, the error is less than 0.025μm. This is not to show off machinability, but to assemble an exceptionally sensitive gyroscope. According to the report, in the late 1980s, the relativistic verification satellite carrying such a precise gyroscope will be put into orbit by a space shuttle to verify again the general theory of relativity. Decades of historical development have proved that the special theory of relativity has greatly promoted the advancement of science and has become a solid foundation for modern physics. The experience of general relativity is not so easy, though