A mysterious material forged in the belly of the earth
地球深处锻造的神秘材料
Strong almost beyond compare and able to stand huge blasts, glossy, black obsidian is forged in the very fires of the earth. What a block! But real obsidian is a little different to the powerhouse you know in Minecraft.
黑曜石强大到无可比拟,能够承受巨大的爆炸。光滑的黑曜石诞生于地球上最剧烈的火焰中。多么令人惊叹的方块!但真正的黑曜石与你在我的世界中了解的特性有点不同。
As reflected in the game, obsidian's made when lava rich in silicates very rapidly cools, such as when it hits water. But while real obsidian looks like it’s also a deep, opaque black, if you hold it to the light you’ll usually see it shine with a green glow. That’s because obsidian is glass, and rather than being super tough, it’s brittle, shattering easily.
正如游戏中的那样,黑曜石是在富含硅酸盐的熔岩非常迅速地冷却时形成的,例如当它碰到水时。但是,尽管真正的黑曜石看起来也是深沉的、不透明的黑色,但如果你把它放在光照下,你通常会看到它发出绿色的光芒。这是因为黑曜石是一种玻璃,它并没有非常坚硬,而是很脆,很容易碎裂。
But this lends obsidian its greatest strength, something early humans knew all about. We’ve been using it for 700,000 years or so to make cutting blades and arrowheads, because broken obsidian has amazingly sharp edges. Carefully knap it and you can create a great variety of cutting tools, leading our Stone Age ancestors to establish obsidian factories and trade networks that could extend for a thousand miles.
但这使黑曜石具有至强的力量,这是早期人类所知道的一切。我们使用它制作刀片和箭头已经有70万年左右的历史,因为破碎的黑曜石具有惊人的锋利边缘。小心翼翼地加工它,你可以制造出各种各样的工具,这让石器时代的祖先建立了黑曜石工厂和黑曜石贸易网络,延伸了一千多英里。
Obsidian forms sharp edges because of its chemical structure. It’s incredibly hard, and unlike crystalline minerals, which tend to cleave along their structural lines, obsidian has no crystalline structure. When it’s struck, the shockwave freely radiates outwards from the point of contact, creating curved ripples across the new surface. The edge can be so fine that it rivals even diamond. At best, a razor blade’s edge is about 300 angstroms across (30 nanometers or 0.00003mm), while a good obsidian edge is about 30 angstroms.
黑曜石会形成锋利的边缘是因为它的化学结构。它的硬度令人难以置信,而且与晶体矿物不同,晶体矿物往往沿其结构线裂开,而黑曜石没有晶体结构。当它被敲击时,冲击波从接触点向外辐射,在表面形成新的弯曲波纹。边缘可以非常精细,甚至可以与钻石媲美。有时候,一个锋利的黑曜石边缘大约是30埃,与剃须刀刀片边缘大约是300埃(30纳米或0.00003毫米)相比可细多了!
This means even today obsidian remains a valuable cutting tool, excellent for very fine procedures such as eye surgery. Creating clean cuts without tearing, obsidian wounds heal quickly and with less scarring than with a steel scalpel. The only problem is that the blade is so brittle, easily shattering if hit from the side. That’s why it’s not used so much as much more expensive diamond blades.
这意味着在今天,黑曜石仍然是一个很有价值的切割工具,非常适合眼科手术等非常精细的手术。黑曜石刀能切出干净的切口而没有撕裂,与钢制手术刀相比,黑曜石刀切出的伤口愈合得很快,而且留下的疤痕也少。唯一的缺点是刀片非常脆,如果从侧面撞到,很容易被撞碎,这就是为什么它不像更昂贵的钻石刀片那样常用。
In Minecraft you might build blast-resistant walls with redoubtable obsidian, but outside the game it’s a far more fragile substance. But it’s no less useful.
在我的世界中,你会用坚硬的黑曜石建造防爆墙,但在游戏之外的现实世界,它是一种比较脆弱的物质,不过它也并非毫无用处。