工科男利用聲波滅火

Engineering Students Use Sound Waves To Extinguish Fires

工科男利用聲波滅火

Water, foam, sand, blankets, and even baking soda are well-known solutions to putting out flames. But sound waves? That has to be a first. But that is exactly what two young engineers from George Mason University are using to douse small fires.

灑水、泡沫、沙土、毛毯甚至發酵粉都是常見的滅火方法，但聲波滅火也許你是頭回聽說。

Electrical and computer engineering students Viet Tran and Seth Robertson were looking for an interesting idea for their senior research project. That's when they stumbled upon an experiment conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA ) in 2012.

電子工程專業學生Viet Tran和Seth Roberson當時正在爲他們大四畢業設計找一個炫酷的方向，隨後就偶然間發現了DARPA2012年做過的這個實驗。

Tran and Robertson decided to challenge themselves and see if they could take the research to the next level and build a fire extinguisher that could be used commercially. As with any radical idea, they faced a lot of skepticism even from faculty members many of whom declined to serve as advisors.

Tran和Roberson打算挑戰自我，看看能否進一步推進這個實驗，製造出一款可以創造商業價值的滅火器。這個不切實際的想法讓他們面對很對質疑，甚至還有許多學院成員拒絕做他們的導師。

The young engineers first tried to extinguish the fire by placing a subwoofer near a flame created using rubbing alcohol. But they soon realized that 'music' is not such a good idea since it is inconsistent and unpredictable. The next option was exposing the fire to 20,000 to 30,000 hertz frequencies. However with the high frequencies, the flames only vibrated. The duo hit a home run when they reduced the frequency to about 30 to 60 hertz. Turns out that at these low frequencies, the sound vibrates the oxygen away from the flames. With no fuel to keep them going, the fire suffocates and dies.

兩位年輕的工程師首先嚐試了用低音炮熄滅酒精火源。很快，他們認識到，用音樂來滅火併不是一個好主意，因爲音樂不連貫也不規則。另一個方案是把火置於2萬到3萬赫茲的頻率中，但是無論音頻有多高，火焰都只是震顫了幾下。但當他們把頻率降到了30-60赫茲的時候，就開始有效果了。實驗證明，在低音頻下，聲波把氧氣從火焰中震顫出去，沒了燃料，火很快就減小熄滅了。

Tran and Robertson are not letting naysayers stray them from their goal. They are forging ahead with their idea, this time with the full support of the University who is even helping them apply for a provisional patent. If they do succeed, there may be soon be a time when fire trucks will be extinguishing flames with some sweet music, instead of messy toxic chemicals!

這時的Tran和Roberson並沒有讓唱反調的人阻擋他們前進的步伐，他們正在不斷推進自己的想法，也獲得了來自校方的全力支持。校方甚至要幫助他們申請爲臨時專利。如果發明成功的話，救火車以後就會不用髒髒的有毒化學物品滅火了，放些甜美的音樂就能搞定一切。

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