航天飞机与马屁股

这个故事我看过,不过怎么看都是《读者》一类文章讲的感悟故事，或者营销培训的洗脑工具。

百度到了这个故事和英文原文.
在这里,请大家讨论一下这个说法的可靠性.


http://www.noblehorse.com.cn/blo ... 007/08/07/7977.aspx

                 轨距和马屁股

                 刘宇婷　编译
     《讽刺与幽默》 (2005年12月30日 第十三版)


　　美国标准的铁路轨距是4.85英尺（大约1.48米），这个数字标准是如何制定的呢？因为英国的铁路就是这么建的，而美国的铁路是英国移民修的。
　　为什么英国人这么修呢？因为修第一条铁路的人过去是修电车轨道的，他们采用的正是电车的轨距。
　　那么，电车的轨距又从何而来？原来建电车轨道的人使用了他们早先造马车的工具，并沿用了马车的轮距。
　　马车为什么有这个特定的轮距呢？那是因为倘若人们使用其他轮距的马车，车轮就会在一些长途古道上被撞坏，因为路面上凹陷的辙印就是这个间距。
　　那么，这些布满辙印的古道是谁铺的呢？欧洲（包括英国）最早的长路都是罗马帝国为古罗马军团铺设的，这些道路被一直沿用下来。罗马战车压出了最初的辙印。
　　于是，我们最初的问题有了答案。美国铁路的标准轨距4.85英尺，起源于罗马帝国战车的原始轮距。
　　那么，罗马人为什么以4.85英尺作为战车的轮距呢？原因很简单，这恰恰是两匹战马屁股的宽度。
　　马屁股和铁路的后面，还有更妙的……
　　当美国航天飞机立在发射台上时，可以看到其主燃料箱的两侧有两个巨大的助推火箭。这些固体火箭助推器是犹他州的一家工厂生产的。设计助推器的工程师们本想把它造得“胖”一点，但是助推器必须由火车从工厂运送到发射点。铁路要穿过一条山间隧道，助推器就必须能通过隧道，隧道只比铁轨宽一点儿，而铁轨只有两匹马屁股那么宽！
　　因此，当今世界最先进的运输系统的设计，在两千年前便由马屁股的宽度决定了！
　　这个典故形象地解释了经济学中一个著名的概念“路径依赖”，即某一路径的既定方向会在以后的发展中得到自我强化，人们过去做出的选择决定了他们现在及未来可能的选择。
　　一旦我们选择了“马屁股”，我们的人生轨道可能就只有4.85英尺。虽然我们并不满意这个宽度，却已经很难从惯性中抽身而出了。


   
英文原文：



What do railroads, the Space Shuttle and a horse's ass have in common?

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?
Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US Railroads.

Why did the English build them like that?
Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

Why did "they" use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads?
Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads?
Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing..
The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. And bureaucracies live forever.  So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses.

Now the twist to the story
When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs.   The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory at Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass.

..... and you thought being a HORSE'S ASS wasn't important!

百度到了这个故事和英文原文.
在这里,请大家讨论一下这个说法的可靠性.


http://www.noblehorse.com.cn/blo ... 007/08/07/7977.aspx

                 轨距和马屁股

                 刘宇婷　编译
     《讽刺与幽默》 (2005年12月30日 第十三版)


　　美国标准的铁路轨距是4.85英尺（大约1.48米），这个数字标准是如何制定的呢？因为英国的铁路就是这么建的，而美国的铁路是英国移民修的。
　　为什么英国人这么修呢？因为修第一条铁路的人过去是修电车轨道的，他们采用的正是电车的轨距。
　　那么，电车的轨距又从何而来？原来建电车轨道的人使用了他们早先造马车的工具，并沿用了马车的轮距。
　　马车为什么有这个特定的轮距呢？那是因为倘若人们使用其他轮距的马车，车轮就会在一些长途古道上被撞坏，因为路面上凹陷的辙印就是这个间距。
　　那么，这些布满辙印的古道是谁铺的呢？欧洲（包括英国）最早的长路都是罗马帝国为古罗马军团铺设的，这些道路被一直沿用下来。罗马战车压出了最初的辙印。
　　于是，我们最初的问题有了答案。美国铁路的标准轨距4.85英尺，起源于罗马帝国战车的原始轮距。
　　那么，罗马人为什么以4.85英尺作为战车的轮距呢？原因很简单，这恰恰是两匹战马屁股的宽度。
　　马屁股和铁路的后面，还有更妙的……
　　当美国航天飞机立在发射台上时，可以看到其主燃料箱的两侧有两个巨大的助推火箭。这些固体火箭助推器是犹他州的一家工厂生产的。设计助推器的工程师们本想把它造得“胖”一点，但是助推器必须由火车从工厂运送到发射点。铁路要穿过一条山间隧道，助推器就必须能通过隧道，隧道只比铁轨宽一点儿，而铁轨只有两匹马屁股那么宽！
　　因此，当今世界最先进的运输系统的设计，在两千年前便由马屁股的宽度决定了！
　　这个典故形象地解释了经济学中一个著名的概念“路径依赖”，即某一路径的既定方向会在以后的发展中得到自我强化，人们过去做出的选择决定了他们现在及未来可能的选择。
　　一旦我们选择了“马屁股”，我们的人生轨道可能就只有4.85英尺。虽然我们并不满意这个宽度，却已经很难从惯性中抽身而出了。


   
英文原文：



What do railroads, the Space Shuttle and a horse's ass have in common?

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?
Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US Railroads.

Why did the English build them like that?
Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

Why did "they" use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads?
Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads?
Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing..
The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. And bureaucracies live forever.  So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses.

Now the twist to the story
When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs.   The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory at Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass.

..... and you thought being a HORSE'S ASS wasn't important!

航天飞机轨道器用飞机运，外储箱是驳船海运。固体助推器是拆散了用火车运。根本就没关系吧

这个问题要这么看。

铁路直径确实在一方面限制了某些火箭部件的尺寸。比如我国长2、3、4系列直径3.35m. 但是这个不是限制火箭性能的惟一因素。可以通过不同的发动机，不同的助推器来达到所需要的运载能力。

所以实际上马屁股没有真正决定航天飞机的性能。但是可能在一些程度下影响到了某些设计。比如助推器的直径。如果是真的靠铁路运的话

工业标准化是现代工业的标志之一…………
要火车轨道宽几年一变，我看那家公司受得了