《那些古怪又讓人憂心的問題》第138期:中子子彈(2)
Neutron stars are some of the densest objects you can find (outside of the infinite density of a black hole). They're crushed by their own immense gravity into a compact quantum-mechanical soup that's in some ways similar to an atomic nucleus the size of a mountain.
Is our bullet made from a neutron star?
我們的子彈是用中子星上的材料製作的嗎？No. Charlotte asked for a bullet as dense as a neutron star, not one made from actual neutron star material. That's good, because you can't make a bullet from that stuff. If you take neutron star material outside of the crushing gravity well where it's normally found, it will re-expand into superhot normal matter with an outpouring of energy more powerful than any nuclear weapon.
不是。夏洛特想要的是密度和中子星一樣大的子彈，而不是由中子星上的材料製成的子彈。這很好，因爲你沒法用中子星上的材料製作出一個子彈來。如果你把中子星上的物質拿到其引力勢阱範圍之外，它會重新膨脹成一團極其熾熱的普通物質，釋放出的能量大於任何一種核武器。
That's presumably why Charlotte suggested we make our bullet out of some magical, stable material that's as dense as a neutron star.
這大概也是爲什麼夏洛特只想要一種穩定的、密度和中子星相當的、由神奇材料製成的子彈。What would the bullet do to the Earth?
子彈會對地球產生什麼影響？You could imagine firing it from a gun,3 but it might be more interesting to simply drop it. In either case, the bullet would accelerate downward, punch into the ground, and burrow toward the center of the Earth.
你可以想象它是從一支槍裏發射出來的，3但考慮把它從半空中釋放的場景會更爲有趣。不管怎麼樣，子彈都會向下加速，撞到地面，然後繼續一路陷進地球深處。This wouldn't destroy the Earth, but it would be pretty strange.
這顆子彈不會毀滅地球，但產生的結果相當奇怪。As the bullet got within a few feet of the ground, the force of its gravity would yank up a huge clump of dirt, which would ripple wildly around the bullet as it fell, spraying in all directions. As it went in, you'd feel the ground shake, and it would leave a jumbled, fractured crater with no entry hole.
當子彈剛陷入地面一兩米時，它自身的重力會揚起大量塵土，隨着子彈越陷越深，塵土形成的漣漪會向四周越來越遠的地方擴散。同時，你會感覺到地面在震動，子彈會在地面上留下一個破爛不堪、滿是裂紋的大坑，但入口洞已經不見了。
