为什么雪让世界这么安静?

为什么雪让世界这么安静?

Hush. It's snowing outside.

嘘。外面下雪了。

At least, doesn't it feel like that when snowflakes make their grand entrance, pirouetting from the sky like tiny, twirling ballerinas?

至少，当雪花隆重登场时，从空中自旋而下，就像旋转的小芭蕾舞演员，你不觉得是这样吗?

Every now and then, a fresh snowfall may be just the interlude the world needs. (Photo: Mirelle/Shutterstock)

Snowflakes look good. They even taste good. But they sound like … nothing.

雪花看起来不错。它们甚至很好吃。但听起来…什么都没有。

So what gives? Does a good snowfall really take the whole world's breath away?

雪带来了什么?一场好雪真的能让整个世界都屏住呼吸吗?

Snow is one of nature's most effective forms of insulation. (Photo: Maja Marjanovic/Shutterstock)

The question was recently posed on Reddit, where opinions varied from the very sensible — "birds go inside where they have central heating and blankets" — to the very romantic — "snow falls slowly, creating relaxing, peaceful thoughts."

这个问题最近在Reddit上被提了出来，大家的观点各不相同，从最理智的——“鸟儿进到有中央供暖系统和毯子的房间里”——到最浪漫的——“雪下得很慢，让人产生放松、平静的想法。”

Of course, the real reason for snow's muting effect is grounded in physics — the shape and composition of the flakes themselves.

当然，雪的静音效应的真正原因是基于物理——雪花本身的形状和组成。

"Snow is going to be porous, and typically porous materials such as fibers and foams, and things of that sort, absorb sound pretty well," David Herrin, a professor at the University of Kentucky's College of Engineering, tells Accuweather.com.

肯塔基大学工程学院的教授大卫·赫林在接受Accuweather.com网站的采访时说:“雪是多孔的，典型的多孔材料，如纤维和泡沫等，能很好地吸收声音。”

Think of snow like egg cartons in a sound studio. As it falls, it lines the streets and sidewalks, covering cars and houses in a noise-muffling embrace.

把雪想象成声音工作室里的蛋盒。当它落下的时候，它在街道和人行道上排成一排，覆盖着汽车和房屋，发出一种消声的拥抱。

Sound absorption, Herrin explains is is gauged on a scale from 0 to 1. Based on previous measurements, sound absorption for snow is in between 0.5 to 0.9, Herrin said.

赫林解释说，吸声是按0到1的刻度来测量的。Herrin说，根据之前的测量，雪的吸声在0.5到0.9之间。

"That implies that a good amount of sound is going to be absorbed," he explains.

“这意味着大量的声音将被吸收，”他解释道。

Even cars must take a necessary pause after a fresh snowfall. (Photo: Andrew Angelov/Shutterstock)

But what about the snow that hasn't quite covered the ground yet? There's no mistaking the icy interlude of a snow shower in progress. The thing is, falling flakes, like drops of rain, do make sound. But, as The Washington Post reports, the pitch is too high to be detected by the human ear. For animals that can hear snowfall, like wolves and bats and birds, it's no symphony. They often retreat to shelter.

但是还没有完全覆盖地面的雪怎么办呢?毫无疑问，这是一场正在进行的阵雨。问题是，飘落的雪花，就像雨滴，会发出声音。但是，正如《华盛顿邮报》所报道的，这种音调太高，人耳无法察觉。对于能听到下雪声音的动物，比如狼、蝙蝠和鸟类，这不是交响乐。他们经常躲到隐蔽处。

And for fish, as Lawrence Chum explains in the Post, snowfall sounds like a "freight train" as those tiny air-filled flakes smack into the water.

而对于鱼类来说，正如劳伦斯·楚姆在帖子中解释的那样，当那些微小的充满空气的雪花扑通一声落入水中时，降雪声听起来就像一列“货运火车”。

But in cities, after snowflakes cease to fall, winter returns to its usual regularly scheduled programming: The sound of cars mashing through gravelly slush, shovels unsheathed to gnaw noisily at pavement and the thump-thump-thump of tired boots on uncertain sidewalks.

但在城市里，当雪花不再飘落，冬天又回到了它通常的日程安排:汽车在砂砾的烂泥中碾过的声音，铲子开凿路面的声音，以及疲惫不堪的靴子在不确定的人行道上的砰砰声。

"After a snow has gotten hard or icy, then a lot of the sound is going to bounce back or be reflected at that point," Herring explains to Accuweather.

“在一场雪变硬或结冰后，很多声音会反弹或在那一点上反射，”赫林向Accuweather解释说。

"It doesn't seem as quiet outside in that case."

“在那种情况下，外面似乎不那么安静。”

No, just the usual soundtrack of winter misery.

没有，只有冬日苦难的声音。

Here comes the snow.

雪来了。

"As sound travels, sounds are muffled," wrote one Redditor. "So the snow makes the world sounds a lot less like it's kerfuffled."

一位红迪网用户写道:“当声音传播时，声音就会减弱。”“所以雪让世界听起来不那么混乱。”